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Sheet Rope - Mesothelioma and Asbestos Exposure Risks

Sheet rope made of asbestos sheet was often used as lagging around pipes, boilers and other heating and cooling systems where a high degree of insulation was desired. Because of its high insulation properties, asbestos was seen as an ideal material to wrap pipes and boilers, preventing heat loss in either direction. Workers who installed or maintained heating and refrigeration units, worked around ship boilers, worked in maintenance in buildings with boilers and pipes that were lagged with asbestos sheet rope and pipefitters and plumbers may all have been exposed to airborne asbestos when working with sheet rope.

Among the duties that may have exposed a worker to asbestos originating from sheet rope are maintaining heating, cooling and refrigeration systems, maintaining, installing and repairing boilers, insulating pipes and/or boilers, removing old insulation from industrial boilers or pipes, manufacturing sheet rope from asbestos sheet or asbestos yarn, cutting asbestos sheet rope to size, wrapping pipes with sheet rope lagging, wrapping boilers in ships, power plants, industrial buildings and factories with rope lagging, removing rope lagging around pipes, boilers and cooling systems. This is far from an exhaustive list of job duties that may have exposed workers to asbestos fibers and dust in working with asbestos rope.

From the early 1900s till around 1980, hundreds of thousands - if not millions - of workers in many industries were exposed to airborne asbestos fibers in carrying out the duties of their jobs. Asbestos, widely hailed as a miracle mineral, was used in nearly every industry in some way or another. It was most widely used in construction and building, in power plants and in ship building. While the companies that supplied asbestos and products that used asbestos were aware of the dangers of working with asbestos, that information was often deliberately hidden from those who worked with the deadly substance every day.

Those dangers are well-documented now, after thousands of court cases have forced accountability on the companies that hid them from the public and their own workers for so long. The most tragic of those dangers is mesothelioma, a cancer that affects the linings of the lungs, heart or abdomen. Mesothelioma, typically described as "rare", has killed tens of thousands of people worldwide in a slow, suffocating death that results from the thickening of the epithelial cells of the organ's linings. While mesothelioma may be rare in the general population, its incidence is between five and ninety times greater in those who worked in certain industries - all industries that exposed their workers to high levels of asbestos dust in the air.

Asbestos dust is made up of microscopic fibers of asbestos. When it is breathed in or swallowed, the unique shape and properties of asbestos make it likely that those fibers are not eliminated or expelled by the body. Instead, they lodge in the cells of the lung, heart or abdominal lining, sometimes remaining there for up to thirty or forty years before causing detectable problems. Because the earliest symptoms of mesothelioma are often mistaken for more benign illnesses and conditions, the cancer is often not discovered until it has reached the later stages of illness.

If you worked with asbestos sheet rope in your job, particularly in the years before 1980, you were very likely exposed to asbestos fibers in the air and are at heightened risk of developing mesothelioma or other asbestos related illnesses. If you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma and may have used or encountered sheet rope containing asbestos in your work, you may have legal recourse. Contact a lawyer experienced with asbestos litigation or mesothelioma litigation to learn more about your rights under the law.

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