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Asbestos Pads - Mesothelioma and Asbestos Exposure Risks

Asbestos is a strong, fibrous material with excellent insulating capabilities, and is also heat-resistant and flame-retardant. These properties made it very popular for use in a wide variety of construction and manufacturing materials, and more than 5,000 different products were once made using asbestos. The use of asbestos has been largely discontinued due to the health risks associated with working with this substance.

Asbestos pads have been commonly used as brake linings and pads, which contain between 30% and 70% asbestos. Asbestos pads were also used in the home, as their highly heat-resistant properties made them ideal for a variety of house-hold uses, such as in the kitchen as stove-top pads, and as ironing board covers. Most automotive companies no longer use asbestos in the manufacture of brake pads, and most other uses of asbestos pads have been discontinued. In 1977 the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned the use of asbestos in most construction materials, however the use of asbestos pads in brake linings continued for several more decades.

The Dangerous of Asbestos

Asbestos is a health risk because its fibers can become airborne and breathed into the lungs. Once inhaled, if the fibers reach the lungs the body cannot excrete them. They remain trapped in the lungs, and over two or more decades can cause changes in lung cells that cause them to become cancerous. Asbestos is known to cause lung cancer, a lung disease called asbestosis, and mesothelioma, a rare but particularly lethal form of cancer that commonly affects the lining of the lungs. In America, around two thousand people are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year. Of those who are diagnosed, less than 50% survive more than two years post-diagnosis.

If you locate asbestos pads in your car or home, it is not always a cause for alarm. Asbestos pads that are in good condition are typically safe, because the asbestos fibers are trapped and cannot be released into the air. Generally it is best to discard these items before they become a problem, to prevent asbestos exposure - but check with local health or environmental agencies before doing to, to ensure you remove and dispose of the asbestos pads safely.

Asbestos and your Legal Rights

Asbestos may cause disease in people who worked in manufacturing plants that produced asbestos pads and other asbestos-containing materials, in people who worked with the manufactured products, and even people who live in homes containing asbestos products.

The dangers of asbestos were known as early as the 1930s, and many companies that manufactured asbestos-containing products ignored or even suppressed knowledge of the dangers, and did not provide their workers with adequate protection. Diseases such as mesothelioma and asbestosis are particularly tragic because so many cases could have been avoided if the truth about asbestos was more widely known, or if workers had been provided with adequate safety equipment to protect them from the substance. Many manufacturing and construction companies put their workers in great danger because they ignored the known hazards associated with asbestos.

Over the past twenty years, many workers have taken legal action against the companies responsible for their asbestos exposure and the diseases they developed as a consequence of the exposure. If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, contact an experienced mesothelioma without delay, and find out how they can assist you in obtaining both justice and financial compensation.

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