Unfortunately, not every country intends to follow in Rwanda’s footsteps in eliminating asbestos, the dangerous cause of life-threatening illnesses like mesothelioma. In Ghana, construction of houses continues to involve the use of roof sheet containing asbestos. When asbestos is handled incorrectly or when its dust particles are accidentally inhaled, it sets the stage for mesothelioma and other deadly diseases, such as lung cancer.

A major issue with the roof sheet in Ghana is that rainfall actually washes the asbestos dust off the roofs and flows into major waterways. This water is then sourced for food preparation, introducing asbestos to the human population. Additionally, when roof sheet becomes old and cracks, previously dormant particles are disrupted and  released.

The chances of acquiring mesothelioma from asbestos exposure increase with length of exposure over extended periods of time. This means it is especially harmful to those individuals in the building construction industry.  Emmanuel Salu, a director of the Environmental Protection Agency in Ghana, recommends individuals contact a licensed asbestos inspection agency in the event that cracked, chipping or otherwise disturbed roof sheet is detected in the home or workplace.

Nations like Rwanda are setting an example for the rest of the world. Meanwhile, there is a worldwide trend toward increasing diagnosis of mesothelioma and other life-threatening illnesses caused by the various uses of asbestos. Advocating for government-enforced nationwide bans of the mineral is a proactive way to turn this trend around.

If you or someone you care about has been adversely affected by asbestos exposure, you might consider reaching out to a mesothelioma lawyer. Look for one with strong experience and a record of success in mesothelioma litigation, and feel free to simply ask for more information.

As previously mentioned, asbestos found its utilization highest in the construction and shipbuilding industries.  Within the field of construction, asbestos was used as an insulator.  Since it was such a fibrous mineral, asbestos can have significant amounts of air within it, which makes it a great insulator.  It was also used as a flame retardant for similar reasons.

Primarily, however, asbestos was utilized as an additive to cement.  Adding asbestos to cement had several advantages.  Of significant importance was that it increased the strength of cement by up to tenfold.  Because of this, less cement needed to be used for construction projects, which allowed for a) greater efficiency on the construction site and b) lowered transportation costs for the cement.  It worked wonderfully for those reasons.

In shipyards, asbestos had somewhat similar applications.  It was used as insulation for piping.  In this capacity, asbestos was ideal because it was cheap, lightweight, and excellent at the task needed.  Its use was not limited to pipes, as engines and boilers were often encased in asbestos as well.

Despite its apparent excellence as a construction supply, however, asbestos ultimately declined due to its incredibly negative side effect, namely, as the primary cause of mesothelioma.

If you or someone you love worked with asbestos in their line of work and has contracted mesothelioma, it might be a good idea to consider contacting a mesothelioma lawyer with a proven track record of success.  A mesothelioma settlement won’t cure the disease, but it may help making the quality of life of a victim suffering from the disease a bit better.

The plan formulated by Motors Liquidation Co., the former portion of General Motors that remains in bankruptcy, involves creating a trust.  This trust will allow Motors Liquidation Co. to leave bankruptcy with some funds earmarked for the payment of future tort claims.  The estate currently faces around $648 million for asbestos liability and might, down the road, face claims for up to 10 times that much.

Much of this asbestos liability comes from GM’s use of asbestos in their brake linings, something they used to do in the past.

Asbestos settlements are commonly reached because a worker has been exposed to asbestos in the past.  Much of this exposure occurs to workers in the shipbuilding and construction industries, both of which (historically) frequently used asbestos for its properties as a flame retardant and insulator.  A worker can inhale asbestos by working directly with it or by repairing something that was originally built or manufactured with the mineral.

The potential issues associated with asbestos exposure can be devastating.  Once inhaled in the lungs, asbestos fibers remain there because they cannot be broken down by the human body.  After a period of latency lasting anywhere from 10 to 50 years, mesothelioma can strike.  This cancer, once its symptoms manifest itself, moves incredibly quickly and is highly deadly: After all, though there are treatments for mesothelioma, there is no cure.  What’s more, the life expectancy of someone diagnosed with this disease is often measured in months.

If you think you may have suffered from asbestos exposure, you may want to consider contacting a mesothelioma law firm with a historical track record of success with settling asbestos claims.

In conjunction with BBC’s International News Services, the ICIJ launched an advanced documentation campaign in Brazil, Canada, China, India, Mexico, Russia and the United States to research and distribute information about the asbestos industry. In a new article published through “Dangers in the Dust: Inside the Global Asbestos Trade,” the project’s website, reporters addressed head-on the widespread use of asbestos in Indian construction and manufacturing today.

Sheets of asbestos are cost-effective for use in construction, and entire dusty factories in India are dedicated to producing this highly demanded, yet lethal time bomb of a product. Experts believe the foundation has been laid for an emerging epidemic for illnesses related to asbestos exposure, including mesothelioma and lung cancer, throughout India. The government is aware of these dangers, but it is against politicians’ best interest to interfere with a trade that provides needed materials and jobs in India’s rapidly growing economy. India now maintains the second largest asbestos market worldwide, behind China. Products containing asbestos bear no warning labels, and the lobbyists and activists fighting for change have had little success because the asbestos market legitimately serves the livelihoods of tens of thousands of residents, many of them poor.

Meanwhile, asbestos has been strictly limited or banned in 52 developed nations— its use is completely banned in the European Union. Believe it or not, the mineral is still utilized legally in the United States for the manufacture of designated products including car brakes and gun parts. For more information about asbestos exposure in consumer products and workplaces, and the ways mesothelioma develops via asbestos exposure, consider contacting a qualified  mesothelioma law firm.

Due to all these attributes, California lawmakers were proud of the possibilities of the mineral, of which it had considerable quantities.  In 1965, serpentine was named the state rock in order to help bolster the burgeoning asbestos mining industry.  Now, according to an article reported in AP, lawmakers are considering stripping serpentine of its privileged status.

It’s hard to disagree with the reasons put forth by Democratic state Senator Gloria Romero, the legislator spearheading the call.  According to her, California has the highest rate of death from mesothelioma in the nation, and it just doesn’t seem right to be celebrating a rock known for containing the lethal mineral.  Indeed, a large part of the reason why serpentine was originally designated the state rock was because of its asbestos content, so one can certainly see Romero’s displeasure at the current state of affairs.

Historically, the rock was crushed to release its asbestos fibers.  Doing so might release the fibers into the air, where they can be inhaled by workers or can settle on their clothing to be inhaled by someone in the home.  Once inhaled, asbestos fibers cannot be broken down by the body, leading, after a latency period of anywhere from 10 to 50 years, to uncontrolled growth of mesothelium cells.  Once this uncontrolled growth starts, the disease spreads rapidly and devastatingly.  After the onset of mesothelioma, victims’ life expectancies are often measured in months.

Asbestos is a mineral that is found naturally in a fiber-like form.  Due to this form, it’s very lightweight and is a very good insulator and a poor conductor.  These properties have caused it to be historically prized as a construction or industrial material, and it’s been used as insulation for pipes, boilers, buildings, and ships.  Furthermore, when asbestos is mixed with concrete, it increases that concrete’s tensile strength, which means less concrete needs to be used and transported.

Asbestos can be categorized by the two forms (sepentine and amphibole) that it comes in.  Amphibole asbestos can be further broken down into different types, which include crocidolite and amosite.

While asbestos can be found all over the world, the historical leader of mining production for the mineral has been Canada.  Today, other nations, including Russia, Australia, China, and South Africa all produce large quantities of asbestos and compete with Canada.

Back to the previously mentioned fiber-like form of asbestos: when the mineral is disturbed, the fibers very easily break down into dust clouds of miniscule particles which can become airborne.  From there, they’re very easily inhaled or swallowed.  The body, unfortunately, cannot break down the inhaled fibers.  After many years of dormancy, these fibers can start to eat away at the lining of the lungs, a devastating process which can cause many diseases.  Chief among these are lung cancer, asbestosis, and mesothelioma.

That, right there, is the sad connection between the two.

Painters coming in contact with these materials might only have had limited exposure to these materials; nevertheless, even a brief exposure to asbestos fibers that are inhaled might be enough to trigger adverse effects such as mesothelioma and asbestosis down the road.

These links might be somewhat tenuous and are not readily proven; after all, as the article source points out, asbestos can remain latent in the body for so long after initial exposure that it’s difficult to source where the exposure originally came from.  Nevertheless, there might be a correlation.

The painting trade is not the first industry to be linked to mesothelioma.  The construction and shipbuilding industries are more commonly associated with asbestos exposure.  Indeed, one of the more recent articles we referred to in this space was the Fincantieri mesothelioma case, which dealt with a verdict of “negligent homicide” decided against executives of a shipbuilding company in Italy.

There might be other industries affected by mesothelioma, ones whose correlations have yet to be unearthed.  Whatever the case, if you’ve been diagnosed with mesothelioma, it might be a good idea to contact a mesothelioma law firm with a long-standing record of experience and success with mesothelioma settlements.  Not only can they provide you with information about such cases, but they might also be able to more ably secure an award for the damages caused by the ravages of this devastating disease.

That could be where the similarities end, however, because vermiculite is generally considered to be harmless to humans who are mining or working with it, while asbestos exposure can lead to many life-threatening diseases.  These diseases include mesothelioma, which has no known cure and can kill someone with terrifying quickness once symptoms manifest themselves.

Vermiculite is mined all around the world, with particularly large concerns operating in China, Brazil, South Africa, the United States, and Zimbabwe.  Within the United States, the largest mines are in the Appalachian mountain range, especially around Virginia.  It resembles mica, another mineral sometimes used for insulation in electronic devices, and has a brownish, vaguely metallic and glassy hue.

Since vermiculite has some similar properties as asbestos, it is often associated with mesothelioma.  However, there does not appear to be any evidence linking the mineral with the brutal cancer, or with any other diseases typically associated with asbestos exposure.  The major causal association between vermiculite and mesothelioma, at least in this country, appears to have stemmed from the asbestos-tainted vermiculite mines of Libby, Montana.  The case of asbestos in Libby, Montana is a well-documented and devastating one which has affected the lives of many in the area.

Due to the fact that vermiculite is generally considered harmless, it’s still used for construction today.  However, vermiculite from the Libby mines is considered suspect, since much of the mineral mined there also contains traces of asbestos.  That isn’t considered harmless.  If you have been exposed to vermiculite from Libby, Montana, there’s a chance that you might have also been exposed to asbestos.  If that’s the case, it might be a good idea to contact a mesothelioma lawyer with a proven track record of success.

Once the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran a series of articles (called, collectively, “A Town Left to Die”) linking the unusual number of asbestos-related deaths in the area to the mine formerly run by W. R. Grace and Company, federal investigators stepped in to determine the veracity of some of the claims made.  Their investigation turned up a disheartening result: there was an alarmingly high level of asbestos fibers found in air samples taken from around the area.  The authorities subsequently linked this finding to the asbestos-related illnesses that plagued the town.

Once the connection was made, the wide-ranging nature of Libby’s asbestos problems was made clear.  Nearly 300 deaths in the town and its surrounding are suspected to be related to asbestos.  This figure, already shockingly high, is even more tragic when taken in context of the town’s population of under 3,000.  Subsequent criminal charges were brought against employees of W. R. Grace & Company, all of whom were found not guilty on all counts.

Nothing can undo the disaster that transpired in Libby, Montana, a good mesothelioma lawyer—or, more likely, a  team of them—could theoretically help intercede on their behalf.  Let’s hope that environmental disasters such as this one neither transpire nor go unpunished in the future.

According to an article posted on the Canadian news source site The Province, the three executives were jailed and given sentences ranging from three to 7 1/2 years.  A sum that was either undisclosed or not specifically reported by The Province, but was nevertheless noted to be in the millions of dollars, was also part of the damages secured.

The decision against the Fincantieri executives stems from the apparent fact that the shipbuilding company continued to use asbestos in the construction of its ships until 1999.  For a little perspective, Italy outlawed the use of asbestos as a construction material back in 1996.  The three years of oversight was enough for the court to find the former executives guilty.

Asbestos, a fibrous material used for its valuable insulation properties, was an integral element in the shipbuilding industry for many years.  Some of the many uses of asbestos in the field were the insulation of pipes, gaskets, boilers, and engines.  Unfortunately, asbestos also causes devastating lung diseases, among them mesothelioma, an insidious cancer that has no known cure.

It sounds like the plaintiffs in this case got what appears to be a pretty aggressive and savvy law firm working for them.  That’s good to hear.  Though a successful mesothelioma settlement can’t undo the ravages that this disease causes on a victim’s lungs, it can help mitigate the medical expenses left behind for the bereaved to deal with.  That can be useful, considering the massive and rapidly accruing expenses often associated with experimental treatments and quickly advancing diseases.

And, like the conviction of the former executives of Fincantieri might indicate, these settlements are also capable of achieving another purpose: justice.