Asbestos A Look At Our History 0
Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral that has been around since the beginning of time. Asbestos is very durable and as a result is used in buildings, railways, automobiles, and as fire retardants. The health risks of asbestos came to light when insurance companies refused to insure people who worked with asbestos. They claimed asbestos workers were at extremely high risk of contracting lung diseases and it was not cost effective to insure them.
Many investigations were done to uncover the health risks of asbestos. These investigations revealed that exposure to airborne asbestos causes mesothelioma, desmoplatsic meseothelioma and asebtsoisis. Investigations were conducted on asbestos companies to uncover their involvement of hundred of thousands of sick and dead workers. Many construction and mining companies had conducted their own tests decades’ prior that revealed asbestos was extremely harmful. The asbestos companies covered up this information and no precautions were taken to protect the workers.
Hundreds of thousands of mesothelioma claims flooded the courts rooms from asbestos lawyer. The court system in the United States has over 200,000 pending asbestos cases. Most of these cases are settled out of court and involve millions of dollars in compensation. Many asbestos companies have gone bankrupt due to the large compensation packages awarded to sick workers.
Asbestos related illnesses are not slowing down with 2,00-3,000 new cases each year in the United State alone. With all the regulations on asbestos use and removal this number is extremely high. Some of theses new asbestos illnesses are a result of 9/11. When the World Trade Center came crashing down a cloud of asbestos dust filled the air exposing hundreds of thousands of people to airborne asbestos. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) informed the people of New York that the air was safe to breath. However, many private air quality tests were conducted that showed the air contained dangerous levels of asbestos. The EPA agreed that the air levels were toxic around the site of 9/11. People who volunteered to clean up the site of ground zero are most at risk. The long-term health implications of this tragedy are unknown due to the latency period of asbestos illnesses. Illnesses can take up to fifty yeas before they manifest as mesothelioma.
