What Causes Mesothelioma?
In the case of typical New York mesothelioma victims, they either inhaled or swallowed airborne asbestos fibers, or “asbestos dust,” many years ago. If inhaled asbestos fibers lodge in a person’s pleura (the thin, cellophane-like membranes lining the lungs), they can develop the cancer known as mesothelioma. Similarly, asbestos fibers that settle in the stomach can cause mesothelioma.
In the United States, some 2,500 to 4,000 patients are diagnosed with mesothelioma and asbestos-related diseases each year. Because New York was home to robust manufacturing centers throughout the 20th century, with companies like Alcan, Bethlehem Steel, Bristol-Meyers, Eastman Kodak, General Electric, General Motors, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Nabisco, Valvoline, Whirlpool, Xerox and many others employing tens of thousands, it is among the states with the most asbestos-related deaths each year.
If you or a loved one in Upstate New York, the North Country, the Southern Tier, the Finger Lakes region, the Buffalo-Rochester area, Albany or Long Island, has been diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease, contact the New York mesothelioma lawyers of Belluck & Fox, LLP.
The law firm of Belluck & Fox, LLP, has investigated mesothelioma cases in every county in the state and has assisted mesothelioma sufferers all across the State of New York. Belluck & Fox provides personalized and professional legal representation and can advise you of the legal options available for you and your family.
For more information, call Belluck & Fox, LLP’s New York mesothelioma lawyers toll-free at 1-877-NYLAW09 (695-2909), or use our online contact form.
New York State communities we serve include Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, Corning, Elmira, the Finger Lakes region, Jamestown, Long Island, Newburgh, New York, the North Country region, Oswego, Plattsburgh, Poughkeepsie, Rochester, Schenectady, Syracuse, Utica, Watertown and Westchester County.
Asbestos In Use Today
“Asbestos” describes a group of six naturally occurring fibrous minerals that have properties useful in many commercial applications. Most forms of asbestos are stable at high temperatures or are even fireproof, and asbestos also resists acids and other strong chemicals. It acts as a thermal and electric insulator and can be woven.
By the late 1800s, asbestos was in widespread use in building components and a wide variety of industrial manufacturing and consumer goods. In the late 1960s to early ’70s, asbestos was present in thousands of products, including all kinds of insulation, roofing shingles, numerous cement products, floor and ceiling tiles, motor vehicle brakes and clutches, machinery gaskets, protective clothing, plastics, paper products, and many more everyday items.
New York has long been an industrial leader in the United States and in the world. In particular, manufacturing and construction industries from the North Country to the Southern Tier, and from Buffalo and Jamestown in the west to Plattsburgh, Albany and Poughkeepsie in the east, used asbestos in building materials and machine components where fire and excessive heat were a concern.
This meant that asbestos was in common use throughout New York, in manufacturing plants or as consumer products sold at the corner store. In a single industrial plant, asbestos might be found in materials used to build the factory, parts that ran the machinery, equipment in the research-and-development lab, furniture in the break room, and safety clothing worn by employees.
Asbestos-containing materials, in short, were commonly used when erecting and operating New York industrial plants and manufacturing plants, creating the potential for countless exposures to persons who worked in and around the numerous facilities over many years.
Asbestos Exposure
The hazard created by exposure to asbestos eventually led to limits on its use for many purposes in the middle of the 1970s. But the risk continues because it takes so long to develop an asbestos-related disease.
Mesothelioma’s latency (inactive) period can range from 10 to 60 years after a victim’s asbestos exposure. This means that asbestos continues to be a threat to workers and their families, whose exposure may date to the middle of the last century. Experts predict that mesothelioma diagnoses among American workers and their families will continue to be made at an increased rate for at least another 10 to 20 years.
A New Yorker’s exposure to asbestos need not have been lengthy for there to be a risk of developing mesothelioma. Some mesothelioma sufferers have reported having had just one exposure to asbestos.
But many workers’ jobs required them to encounter asbestos fibers in the air they breathed every day. Workers were exposed to asbestos hazards in several ways during the heyday of New York’s manufacturing and industrial centers. In the past, workers typically used asbestos materials in the construction and manufacturing sector and were also exposed to asbestos while repairing or maintaining buildings, ships, and machinery with asbestos-containing parts.
Secondary Exposure to Asbestos
Asbestos fibers are so toxic that the families of New York trade and industrial workers also run an increased risk of developing mesothelioma and other asbestos-related lung diseases. Asbestos particles clinging to the clothing, shoes, skin and hair of industrial workers and tradesmen were routinely taken to their homes and families. This type of second-hand asbestos exposure is known as “para-occupational exposure.”
Asbestos exposure is currently a risk, as well, for tradesmen who renovate older buildings. Many older buildings contain asbestos that was part of building materials in wide use before the carcinogen was banned. Work on these structures can easily release asbestos fibers into the air to contaminate nearby surfaces. This hazardous asbestos residue can find its way into the lungs of workers involved in renovation or demolition of old buildings or of anyone passing by.
Given New York’s long history of heavy industrial manufacturing at plants like Beech Nut, Blue Circle Cement, Eastman Kodak, Fairchild Republic, Northrop Grumman, Occidental Chemical, Wyeth-Ayerst, Xerox and many others, it’s no surprise that databases identifying hotspots of asbestos use and asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma identify several New York regions.
Find more information about asbestos’ dangers, injuries it can cause, and what asbestos companies knew about asbestos dangers though they continued to use it, in our mesothelioma FAQs.
Contact Our New York Mesothelioma Lawyers Today
If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease, contact the New York mesothelioma lawyers of Belluck & Fox, LLP, today. Our NY asbestos injury attorneys have investigated mesothelioma cases in every county in the state and have assisted mesothelioma sufferers all across the State of New York. Belluck & Fox provides personalized and professional legal representation and can advise you of the legal options available for you and your family.
For more information, call Belluck & Fox, LLP’s New York mesothelioma lawyers toll-free at 1-877-NYLAW09 (695-2909), or use our online contact form.
