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Asbestos Canvas - Mesothelioma and Asbestos Exposure Risks

Asbestos is a naturally-occurring but potentially lethal substance that is known to cause a variety of fatal diseases, including mesothelioma cancer. In America, long-term exposure to asbestos, over several years, is the cause of around two thousand new cases of mesothelioma every year, and there is no cure for mesothelioma.

In the past asbestos has been used in a wide range of products used in construction, including insulation materials and acoustic barriers. These products typically contained anywhere between 1% and 25% asbestos. Asbestos canvas has typically been used for insulating commercial boilers, for wrapping fiberglass insulation, and for insulating similar constructions. Canvas was also often used to wrap pipes made from materials containing asbestos.

The use of asbestos in these products was banned by the Consumer Product Safety Commission in 1977. This ban applied only to new materials produced after 1977, however. Existing stocks of asbestos-containing construction materials were still used until those stocks were exhausted, meaning that these potentially dangerous materials were used in construction well into the 1980s. Homes built in and before the 1980s may contain asbestos canvas and other construction materials containing this substance.

Protecting your Home and Family from Asbestos

The way in which asbestos was used in the past and the nature of the diseases that asbestos exposure causes are a particularly lethal combination. Asbestos is often known as a 'silent killer', because diseases such as mesothelioma often take two or more decades to develop after exposure to asbestos. The symptoms of mesothelioma are very non-specific in the early stages of the disease. Symptoms of this cancer often resemble those of viral diseases such as pneumonia and flu, making mesothelioma difficult to diagnose early.

The presence of asbestos canvas or other asbestos-containing materials in your home is not necessarily life-threatening or dangerous. These products are typically safe as long as they are allowed to remain intact without disturbance, as the asbestos fibers are trapped within the matrix of the construction material. However, any disturbance to the materials may allow asbestos fibers to be released into the air, and because they can then potentially be breathed into the lungs, they do become more dangerous.

If your home was built in or before the 1980s and you are concerned about the possibility of the presence of asbestos-containing materials, samples of these materials can be professionally tested for asbestos for a small fee. If asbestos is detected, you can then choose to have the asbestos-containing materials removed and replaced with safer versions.

Asbestos and your Legal Rights

If you are at risk of exposure to asbestos either at home or at work, or have developed mesothelioma cancer or another disease as a result of long-term asbestos exposure, it's important to know your rights. The first step in understanding your rights is contacting an experienced mesothelioma lawyer who can explain your rights and how you can proceed with a mesothelioma lawsuit or settlement.

Your mesothelioma lawyer can also help you determine how, when and where your asbestos exposure occurred, and what types of asbestos-containing products you were exposed to. This is an important stage of the process, as this will also determine which company or companies manufactured or installed the products, and therefore who is responsible for your asbestos exposure.

Mesothelioma is a debilitating and invariably fatal form of cancer that causes considerable pain and suffering to the victim and their family. By pursuing a mesothelioma lawsuit or settlement you can obtain justice as well as compensation for emotional and physical suffering, decreased quality of life, and loss of income.

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