Mesothelioma And Its Latency Period
Mesothelioma is a rare, but extremely aggressive cancer, mainly caused by the use of asbestos products in industrial facilities. The process one goes through after being diagnosed with the disease is brutal for the whole family. It’s an often shocking diagnosis because usually the patient hasn’t been around said asbestos for several decades. The disease has a long latency period, meaning exposure may not manifest as cancer for thirty plus years.
This helps explain why cases are still showing up, even after OSHA, The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, regulated the asbestos industry in the early 1970’s. Here we are, decades and decades after, and we’re still seeing cases of mesothelioma due to its latency. To make things clearer, think about sunburn; you go out into the sun, stay there too long and you burn immediately. A sunburn is not a latent disease. However, if you smoke cigarettes, even if you quit, you may still develop a cancer years later. Asbestos and mesothelioma are like that. It’s not unusual for folks to be diagnosed twenty, thirty or forty years after they’ve left their jobs at the chemical plants, power houses, and industrial facilities.
How Much Exposure Does It Take?
Some of my clients come to me and wonder how in the world they got this disease because they had such small exposure to the asbestos. Unfortunately, there is no safe level of exposure when it comes to this terrible disease. We’ve represented wives and daughters that simply had the chore of shaking out Dad’s overalls when he came home from work. This miniscule exposure to the harmful asbestos caused their diagnosis decades later.
Slow And Steady Progress For Treatment
This cancer is very, very difficult to manage and, yes, scientists have been working for many years to find treatments. They have some new and different types of genetic testing that are invaluable in diagnosing the disease and some treatments are showing a little bit of hope. Honestly, the data isn’t all that great. I still tell my clients to always have hope, but get your affairs in order. Let me do my job as a lawyer to prepare for the worst case scenario to protect you and your family.
Here at The Segal Law Firm we have the tools to look back twenty, thirty, forty even fifty years at industrial facilities where folks were exposed and determine whose asbestos was being used to then get them into the proper legal proceeding to protect themselves and their family. The mesothelioma is nobody’s fault except the asbestos companies and we’ll do everything we can to protect you and your family. Please give us a call with any questions at 855-344-9100.