Mississippi Personal Injury Lawyers Help Clients Understand the Causes of Mesothelioma
Protecting clients’ rights to fair compensation for their losses
The primary cause of mesothelioma is asbestos exposure — usually in the workplace. While the majority of people who experience asbestos exposure for decades do not get the disease, some people who have had a relatively small amount of exposure contract this rare and deadly cancer. At the law firm of Cumbest, Cumbest, Hunter & McCormick, we have more than 50 years of experience working with clients who have been diagnosed with mesothelioma. There is a time limit for filing a claim for compensation, so it is important to take action right away.
What is the cause of mesothelioma?
Mesothelioma is an incurable cancer that occurs when inhaled or ingested asbestos fibers become embedded in the delicate membranes that line the lungs and other organs and damage the DNA of the surrounding mesothelial cells, creating an environment for cancerous tumors to form.
What causes the cancerous tumors to form is the genetic mutations that occur when the healthy cells growing around the asbestos fibers in the body become damaged. These mutant cells stop communicating with other cells and begin to multiply out of control instead of following the normal life cycle of a cell.
What are the possible risk factors for mesothelioma?
Because so many millions of people are exposed to asbestos for years without developing mesothelioma, researchers are working to determine other risk factors that might play a role in whether a person gets the disease.
Common occupations for asbestos exposure include:
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Living in a household with someone who works with asbestos and then carries the fibers into the house on skin or clothing is also a common risk factor, because family members can inhale or ingest the fibers. Also, those who smoke in addition to having been exposed to asbestos seem to have a higher risk of getting the disease. And SV40 vaccinations given between 1955 and 1963 were grown using monkey cells. There may be a link between that vaccination and an increased risk for certain cancers.
Asbestos exposure risks from Hurricane Katrina
Those who worked on relief and cleanup efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated homes and property in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama with a path of destruction as much as 100 miles from the epicenter in some locations, may also be at risk.
The floodwaters from the storm destroyed thousands of buildings in the Gulf Coast area and caused asbestos-containing building materials to be broken up and destroyed. In the process, toxic asbestos fibers and more than 100 additional pollutants, according to the EPA, were present in the floodwaters and in the air, which posed a risk to the relief workers and residents in the area after the storm.
The cleanup process continues post-Katrina in the affected states, and the EPA has issued warnings about the precautions that workers should take when they are removing old insulation, ceilings, flooring materials and plumbing, as asbestos contamination is still a danger in those areas.
Malignant mesothelioma is a rare cancer, but it is deadly, and there is no cure for it at the moment. Medical scientists and researchers are actively looking to discover all the factors that have an impact on a person’s likelihood of getting mesothelioma and how those risk factors lead to cancer in some people and not in others with the same levels of exposure to asbestos.
We know that if you or a loved one has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, filing a mesothelioma lawsuit might not be as much of a priority to you as trying to get healthy. Our attorneys take the burden off your shoulders and focus on holding the responsible parties accountable for your injuries.
Contact a trusted Pascagoula personal injury law firm with experience handling mesothelioma cases
At Cumbest, Cumbest, Hunter & McCormick, we know how emotionally devastating it can be to face the diagnosis of a potentially deadly disease. We are here to help you seek compensation. Contact us online or call us at 866-461-1591 to schedule a no-obligation, confidential consultation today.