Asbestosis and Mesothelioma: Who is at Risk and What Steps Can You Take?

Asbestosis and asbestos-induced lung cancers are far more common in the US than the diseases should be today. However, there is still the option to prevent these deadly diseases from afflicting at-risk individuals. In case it's too late to take preventive steps, legal options are there that can help patients get access to all available forms of treatment.

For any of that to happen, awareness is key and in the brief scope of this post, we are going to go through the more important details that should help readers in gaining more awareness regarding both prevention and possibility of legal steps.

Although mesothelioma may or may not be caused by asbestos exposure, the deadly fibers have been confirmed as being the most common cause. Asbestosis, on the other hand, can only be caused by inhalation of asbestos fibers. What this means is that anyone exposed to asbestos can develop asbestosis and/or mesothelioma down the line. At-risk individuals include:

• Construction, demolition and mill workers
• Railroad and shipyard workers
• Roofers, welders and painters
• Electricians and plumbers
• Mechanics and other workers within the automotive industry
• Firefighters
• Dockers and miners
• Victims, emergency workers and everyone else associated with the 9/11 site

This is not a comprehensive list, but it should provide a decent idea regarding who are the people at the highest risk of getting exposed to asbestos.

Unfortunately, there is no cure for either of the two diseases in most cases, but there are certainly ways to reduce the chances of getting cancer or asbestosis, while working in any of the professions mentioned above. The specific guidelines will need to be revised in accordance with the level and type of exposure, so the details would largely vary with the profession in question. To get a complete guideline regarding safe asbestos handling, check out the official OSHA page here. If you have been already exposed though, get checked as soon as possible for signs of either disease at a clinic, for an early diagnosis.

Whether you have acute asbestosis or mesothelioma, aka asbestos lung cancer, the legal options at your disposal are aplenty. Not only do you deserve to be financially compensated for all the hospital bills, your personal injury attorneys should be able to ensure that you receive a compensation that's sufficient enough to sustain you and your dependents for a long time to come. Even if your chances of winning are slim, personal injury attorneys should not charge you for the evaluation, or even the entire trial, if they choose to take it up and lose.

Mesothelioma is more manageable than curable, but the efficacy of treatment depends mostly on the stage in which the cancer is and how well the mutated cancer cells respond to chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Additional surgical procedures might also be necessary.

If your oncologist decides that a combination of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and/or surgery is the best course of action to take, it would be termed as a multimodal approach, which currently has the highest rate of success in general among traditional treatment procedures.