Asbestos, Mesothelioma, and How They Affect Workers

Many, many years ago a friend worked with his stepfather during the summer. He was a young college student who came home for the summers and to make some money for the summer, he helped his stepfather tear down and rebuild building structures for his business. Before serious regulation came about against asbestos, mesothelioma was a completely unknown form of cancer in Western, industrialized nations. Despite this, thousands of Americans were refurbishing and restructuring buildings replete with asbestos. Mesothelioma was a form of cancer found as a result of the consistent inhalation of the fiber. Without proper regulation, neither his stepfather nor he knew of the harm they were subjecting themselves to. Building by building, wall by wall, they were inhaling daily the harmful contents of this cancerous substance. Throughout the summer, they stood upon ladders and step stools, attempting to break down, refinish, or restructure walls that were completely made of asbestos. Mesothelioma was the last thing on their minds, even when regulatory commissions came out against it. They clearly had a job to do, and they had set out to do it. Over a span of five years, his stepfather cleared 250 different jobs, many of which involved the removal or teardown of this life threatening substance. He was with him on some of those, and unbeknownst to them, they were adversely affecting their lives to make a decent living wage to support their family and standard of living. After health conditions deteriorated in his stepfather, his mother was forced to send him to health professionals who, at the time, were slowly discovering the effects of this horrible substance. Eventually, the family was forced to make consultations with trial lawyers concerned with how companies who had used asbestos were denying health claims against those who had been directly exposed to it. In some cases, court hearings went on for years, often stagnating, or resulting in mediocre settlements that barely covered the medical expenses of the victims. Fortunately for his stepfather, they were able to successfully litigate against a company that alleged no asbestos was in a building that his stepfather was working on, several times after he checked with them on record before he began their work. After he was able to mitigate his troubles against this company, he vowed to stop construction and contracting work for the rest of his life, even if it meant going into debt to grave. Thousands of other Americans shared the same narrative. He received $19,000 of a court settlement he never agreed to, the largest single sum of money he had ever seen. He took the check and took his wife and children on a cruise the next summer, something he had never done before in his life. Three weeks after his trip, his stepfather had died from complications due to mesothelioma. Asbestos had finally killed him. On his gravestone he wanted -- and indeed had -- "Never, ever nail nothin' down to the stone."