What Causes Mesothelioma?
The typical mesothelioma victim in New York’s North Country either inhaled or swallowed asbestos “dust,” meaning airborne asbestos fibers, many years ago. This kind of exposure can result in mesothelioma if inhaled fibers lodge in a person’s pleura, which are the thin, cellophane-like membranes lining the lungs. Similarly, swallowed fibers that settle in the stomach can cause mesothelioma.
In the United States each year, some 2,500 to 4,000 patients are diagnosed with mesothelioma and asbestos-related diseases. New York is among the states with the highest numbers of asbestos-related deaths.
If you or a loved one in Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis or St. Lawrence County, New York, has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, the North Country asbestos injury legal team of Belluck & Fox, LLP, can help. We investigate mesothelioma cases from the North Country and all of New York. We provide personalized and professional legal representation to mesothelioma sufferers and their families, and we can help you understand and consider the legal options available to you.
Use our online contact form or call Belluck & Fox, LLP’s mesothelioma attorneys toll-free in the North Country at 877-MESOTHELIOMA (637-6843) for expert assistance today.
Asbestos Use Today
The term “asbestos” includes a group of six naturally occurring fibrous minerals that have properties useful in many commercial applications. Asbestos in most forms is stable, or even fireproof, at high temperatures. Asbestos also resists acids and other strong chemicals, acts as a thermal and electric insulator, and can be woven.
By the late 1800s, asbestos’s strength, versatility and insulating properties made it popular in many building and construction industries, and it began making its way into a wide variety of industrial and consumer products. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, asbestos was present in thousands of products, including cement pipes and other cement products; flooring materials; friction surfaces for items like vehicle brakes and clutches; gaskets; insulation used in buildings and ships; paper products; protective clothing; plastics; roofing materials; and many more.
The economic success of New York’s North Country in the first half of the 20th century was based in large part on industrial manufacturing. In particular, the six counties on the state’s northern frontier have a significant history of supporting mining, manufacturing and construction industries where fire and excessive heat were a concern.
This meant that asbestos was in common use in the North Country and neighboring regions, whether as a building material specified for use in industrial centers or as a substance used throughout manufacturing plants. In the mining industry alone, asbestos might be found in uses as diverse as buildings, lab equipment, bench tops, and even employees’ safety clothing.
Asbestos-containing materials, in short, were commonly used when erecting and operating upstate industrial plants, creating the potential for countless workers to be continuously exposed to asbestos while toiling in and around the numerous facilities over the years and decades.
Occupational Asbestos Exposure
The dangers of asbestos exposure were eventually recognized, and limits on its use for many purposes were adopted in the mid-1970s. Even so, the risk from exposure continues even three decades later because asbestos-related diseases develop over many years. Mesothelioma’s latency (inactive) period can range from 10 to 60 years beyond a victim’s exposure to asbestos. This means that asbestos-related disease is still a threat to workers and their families who were exposed to asbestos even decades in the past. Experts expect mesothelioma diagnoses to increase in the United States for at least another 10 to 20 years.
A North Country worker’s exposure to asbestos need not have been lengthy for there to be a risk of developing mesothelioma. Some mesothelioma sufferers have reported only one occasion of exposure to asbestos.
Often, a worker’s job places them in an environment where they encounter airborne asbestos fibers. Workers were exposed to the hazards of asbestos in several ways during the North Country’s heyday as an industrial center. 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 products containing asbestos parts.
Secondary Asbestos Exposure
Asbestos fibers are so toxic that the families of North Country trade and industrial workers have an increased risk of developing mesothelioma because of their exposure to particles that cling to workers’ clothing, shoes, skin and hair. This type of second-hand asbestos exposure is known as “paraoccupational secondary exposure.”
Asbestos exposure remains a present risk, too, for persons involved in building renovations. Many buildings constructed before asbestos use was banned remain standing. Work on such buildings creates a significant risk of disturbing asbestos-containing building materials and releasing their asbestos fibers into the air to contaminate nearby surfaces. This contamination can transfer to the lungs of workers involved in renovation or demolition of old buildings.
Given upstate New York’s long history as a base for significant heavy industrial manufacturing, chemical processing, and construction activity at plants like Bristol-Myers in East Syracuse, Eastman Kodak in Rochester and Lockheed Martin in Owego and many others, it’s no surprise that databases that track asbestos use and identify hotspots where asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma occur at higher-than-average rates identify the North Country of New York.
For more information on the dangers of asbestos, the injuries it can cause, and what asbestos companies knew about its dangers as they continued using asbestos, see our mesothelioma FAQs.
Contact Our North Country Mesothelioma Illness Attorneys Today
If you or a loved one in Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis or St. Lawrence County, New York, has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, the North Country asbestos injury legal team of Belluck & Fox, LLP, can help. We investigate mesothelioma cases from the North Country and all of New York. We provide personalized and professional legal representation to mesothelioma sufferers and their families, and we can help you understand and consider the legal options available to you.
Use our online contact form or call Belluck & Fox, LLP’s mesothelioma attorneys toll-free in the North Country at 877-MESOTHELIOMA (637-6843) for expert assistance today.
