Unless you are over 100 years old, there’s a strong possibility that your mesothelioma came from someone either covering up the danger of asbestos, or sheer negligence on their part. That’s right; a London physician first noted the danger of asbestos related disease when he examined the lungs of a 33-year-old deceased textile worker and found asbestos fibers. He labeled the disease asbestosis.
By 1917, the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine had discovered scarring in the lungs of asbestos workers. Someone believed there was a relationship to asbestos and lung disease because, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, insurers began denying coverage and noted there was “assumed health-injurious conditions” for asbestos workers. Many different publications in medical journals reported not only the link between asbestos and asbestosis but also the link between it and cancer that ultimately lead to death.
In the 1930′s almost every asbestos manufacturer knew that exposure to their product could be fatal. Even Aetna, the insurance giant, stated that asbestos exposure often led to “permanent disability followed by death.” Yet even when the medically field accepted the link between asbestos and cancer in 1940, manufacturers turned a blind eye to the fact that asbestos exposure played a role in the development of lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis.
They instead, monitored the health of employees secretly and when necessary, rewrote the results of their study in their own favor. Some companies were so aware of the dangers, they labeled the products incorrectly to hide the fact it contained asbestos.
By the 1960s it was so well known that asbestos was hazardous, that internal memos made mention of the asbestos. In some cases, they even joked about the potential death it caused. The purchasing agent for Bendix Corporation sent a memo in 1966 to Canadian Johns Manville. He made light of the problem by stating, “…if you have enjoyed the good life while working with asbestos products, why not die from it.”
Yet companies still marketed asbestos and still exposed workers. By 1972, an executive at W.R. Grace sent an internal memo that told others in the company, “Our present policy is to tell no one anything.” While Union Carbide decided that negating the danger was the best path to follow and customers should receive the word that “asbestos is not a carcinogen,” even though their medical department requested they needed to make the public aware of the danger.
At a meeting of the Asbestos Textile Institute attended by a group of the industry leaders, it was noted that even though there were fatal consequences to thousands of individuals, there was “good news.” According to them, “few people have been paying attention.” One final attempt in the 1980s by DuPont was to request physicians remove the term “asbestos” from any x-ray stamps and instead use a more generic term, “irritant.”
Should you sue?
If you know you were exposed to asbestos on the job, you have recourse. Since mesothelioma doesn’t show up for many years, you may have to sit for a while to find where the exposure may have occurred. Should you sue? That question can only be answered by you but if you aren’t mad enough by now because of the intentional exposure, even though manufacturers knew of its danger, ask your spouse or your children how they feel about carrying on without you.
The lawsuit can’t be punitive and must simply cover pain and suffering. Often health insurance companies only offer payment for treatment centres and traditional treatment. Even though alternative treatment may work, sometimes far better than the widely accepted medical ones and give the patient a better quality of life, the insurance company refuses coverage because it’s not standard procedure. You pay for these treatments out of pocket.
While some involve lifestyle changes and may only cost a small amount more than you now spend, others may be almost as expensive as conventional treatment. In this case, you have to ask if it’s right for you to pay for the negligence of others, not just with your health but with your financial resources also.
You also have to consider the loss of work you’ll experience. While disability may pay for some of the lost wages, it often doesn’t come close to covering your earning potential if you were healthy. The people that you sue are not the Mom and Pop business owners that were bamboozled just like you, they are manufacturers with adequate resources that hid the fact the product they produced was dangerous.
In order to dodge their liability or because they no longer could handle the compensation of lawsuits, many of the manufacturers filed bankruptcy. They weren’t without assets but simply couldn’t pay the lawsuits they faced. Rather than divide all the assets among the creditors, the courts knew that the epidemic iceberg of mesothelioma was just poking a small edge above the waves and created trust funds for future asbestos related claims. Some of the funds don’t contain enough compensation for all asbestos victims and others hold the purse strings tightly, making it necessary to have good legal council.
Choosing a Mesothelioma lawyer
You can often find information about mesothelioma lawyers from support groups. The groups often know who the experienced attorneys are and can give you insight into the necessary information you should take to the first meeting. Choosing an attorney experienced in mesothelioma lawsuits is important. They’ve already completed the legwork form many previous cases and understand the proper procedures to take in pursuing a lawsuit, when it comes to this particular disease.
Rather than selecting a family law or business law attorney, you’ll be choosing someone immersed in knowledge of previous cases and damaging documents regarding mesothelioma pain, mesothelioma survival rate and the devastation it causes to the family. They know the ins and outs of receiving compensation. An attorney versed in mesothelioma suits doesn’t have to take the extra time to study the groundwork, since he participated in creating it earlier.
When to sue
Since many of the mesothelioma cases take time to settle, you need to begin as soon as possible. If your condition declines, you won’t have the strength to follow through and will leave just one more item for a spouse already suffering from the stress of watching a loved one decline. The sooner you find whether compensation is available, the sooner you can focus every ounce of strength on getting better using any means possible. It’s easier to make a decision for alternative treatment when you know there’s money available to pay for it.
If you find you have mesothelioma, take the first opportunity you have to explore the potential for a lawsuit if you believe it’s the right thing to do. Remember, the disease may not show up for decades after exposure so you may need to scour your past to see if there was any exposure to asbestos earlier in your life.