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Mesothelioma: Historical Beginnings
Why You Are Entitled To Compensation - The Roots of Mesothelioma and Asbestos Exposure
Asbestos has been a silent killer of individuals across the country for centuries. Once considered a harmless mineral, asbestos has claimed innumerable lives and devastated countless families. Since the early 1900's, scientists hypothesized that the heavy use of asbestos in insulation and building materials was connected to the tremendous number of diseases and deaths in those who worked or were around the mineral for even abbreviated amounts of time. Now, almost a century later, the true devastating effects and causes of asbestos-related illnesses are fully realized through the victims of mesothelioma.
The asbestos industry boomed throughout the mid-twentieth century. Relatively inexpensive and easy to work with, manufacturers were making millions of dollars with this insulating and filler mineral. Manufacturers used asbestos in a multitude of products, including gaskets, cement, blankets, building materials, automotive products, joint compounds, and even in clothing and other household products. With the use of the material so prevalent, the American public did not know, and could not forecast, the harmful effects asbestos would inescapably have on their health in the decades to follow.
It was shortly after its initial use in household and industrial products that medical professionals began to notice a connection between the number of individuals affected with life threatening lung diseases and their asbestos-related occupations. As early as the 1930's, medical literature acknowledged the dangers of working in such close proximity to asbestos and published information warning the manufacturers of their findings.
Asbestos trade associations, taking note of the research developments being made in the medical fields, funded scientific studies to purportedly prove asbestos and asbestos-based products were in fact safe. Fortunately, other non-aligned scientists arrived at an entirely different conclusion. In their findings, they determined asbestos was in fact a highly toxic carcinogen that left laboratory animals with respiratory illnesses, diseases and, in some cases, cancer. Their findings helped to reinforce their initial hypothesis that the same diseases occur in humans with relatively similar patterns of asbestos exposure.
In spite of the dramatic and frightening conclusions of the scientists' findings, the asbestos industry and trade associations went to tremendous lengths to prevent the information from reaching the general public. From editing and modifying scientific reports, to altering and destroying test results, many titans of the asbestos industry sought every road possible to prevent the findings from being released.
Through the tireless efforts by some pioneering asbestos scientists, the United States government finally forced public warnings and recognition by these companies of the hazards of asbestos. Thus began a slowly growing campaign to restrict and, ultimately, largely prohibit its use in the United States.
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