Asbestos-Attorneys.net

Asbestos Lawyers

Asbestos-Attorneys.net aims to bring you the best available information on asbestos related illnesses such as asbestosis, mesothelioma and pleural diseases, and to provide you with details of how to go about seeking professional legal help in order to pursue a compensation claim.

Asbestos diseases are caused by inhaling asbestos dust, a mineral commonly used in the construction industry until the 1970s. The main diseases caused by asbestos inhalation are asbestosis - the scarring of lung tissue, lung cancer, mesothelioma (cancer of the lining of the chest and lungs) and pleural disease. Pleural disease includes calcification of the lungs and pleural effusion (fluid on the lungs).

Over 3,000 people a year die of the disease in the UK alone and numbers are predicted to rise to 10,000 a year by 2020. Those infected are mainly builders, plumbers and shipyard workers, but teachers, children and nurses are believed to have been put at risk since asbestos was used in the construction of several schools and hospitals.

Families of those who work with asbestos can also be infected if asbestos particles are brought into the home on clothes. It can take up to 40 years for symptoms to show (refer to our case study below).

There are many symptoms that can diagnose asbestos exposure but the main ones include shortness of breath on exertion, a persistent cough, chest pain or tightening of the chest, nail abnormalities (such as ridges developing on the nails or white streaks on the nails) and thickening of the fingers and toes.

There is no known cure for asbestos diseases, but, as severity depends on the length of exposure and amount of asbestos dust inhaled, early identification through chest x-ray can prevent further exposure and worsening of conditions.

However, those people who develop mesothelioma have a particularly bad prognosis. Around 75% die within one year of being diagnosed. Mesothelioma can take between 20 and 40 years to develop after exposure to asbestos dust.

Asbestos has also been linked to other forms of cancers which include lung cancer (worsened by cigarette smoking) as well as cancers of the oesophagus, stomach, colon and rectum.

Pleural diseases require their victims to have their lungs drained at intervals to relieve the build-up of fluid.

The UK Health and Safety Commission have already successfully banned the use of brown and blue asbestos in building materials and lobbied to have white asbestos removed back in 2002.

Trade unions have brought several successful cases against companies whose workers have developed asbestos diseases. These have resulted in large compensation payouts to victims and their families.

Case study 1

A woman who contracted cancer years after inhaling asbestos particles from her husband's work clothes was awarded £110,000 in 1998.
Mrs Ann Macpherson, whose husband Derek died of the same disease in 1995, now has mesothelioma. He worked at an aluminium processing plant near Banbury, in Oxfordshire.

His 57-year-old widow is one of a growing number of people who have become ill from asbestos dust unwittingly brought home by other members of the family.

Mrs Macpherson was diagnosed in 1997 and retired from her job at Horton General Hospital, in Banbury, last October on grounds of ill health. She pursued a claim against her husband's employers, backed by her union, Unison.

Mrs Macpherson said working as a medical secretary had helped her cope with the death of her husband.
"I had just started a new job as a secretary when I had to give it up because I became too ill to carry on.
"Asbestos is a time bomb ticking away that can strike years later."