Mesothelioma and Dentists

It is well know that people who are directly involved in activities where they come in touch with asbestos material are at high risk of developing mesothelioma cancer. Many think only people in construction industry are susceptible to this asbestos cancer and hence this was termed as a blue color disease. This is not true. There is another profession whose people are at the same risk – Dentists. Yes, dentists fae a high risk of developing mesothelioma.


Research says that there is no safe level of exposure to asbestos. Asbestos is used in dentistry for casting rings. Continuous exposure to smaller quantity of asbestos could increase the number of times you inhale asbestos particles which increases your risk of developing asbestos mesothelioma cancer. Since the rooms in which dentists work are smaller, there is a higher risk of inhalation of asbestos fibers.

Inhaling asbestos fibers into the lungs cause damage to DNA of the tissue which in turn grows uncontrollably in your body. Mesothelioma symptoms would not be easy to identify and it takes tens of years to show itself where by that time the disease reaches an advanced stage.

Mesothelioma prognosis is very grim and not many survive for more than few years.

Mesothelioma Claims Options

Many times it is advisable to get advice from mesothelioma lawyers to build the mesothelioma cancer settlement claim. Following are some of the reason why mesothelioma claims can be made.
1)    Lost income
2)    Pain or suffering
3)    Medical expenses
4)    Failure to warn
5)    Negligence
6)    Loss of consortium
The mesothelioma lawyers can give you the best advice on such settlement cases. Many times in these cases, your medical and financial records become important part of your claim. Houston Mesothelioma Lawyers are famous in such cases and they would have dealt many such cases so they can guide you in the process of mesothelioma claim.

Mesothelioma Claims

People generally file a mesothelioma claim when they contract malignant mesothelioma cancer to recover the damages. Mesothelioma claim is for loss of income, pain and suffering and medical expenses etc.


There are two types of claims.

1) Personal Injury mesothelioma claim

2) Wrongful death mesothelioma claim

Personal injury mesothelioma claim is filed by the person diagnosed with mesothelioma cancer. Wrongful death mesothelioma claim is filed by a family member when the person has passed away.

Mesothelioma Claims

Mesothelioma cancer is caused solely for the reason of inhaling asbestos particles. Most of the affected people were working in asbestos industry. The airborne particles of asbestos when inhaled by the workers will ruin the mesothelium of the person or the protecting organs in the lungs. Most of the people work in such places because of employers greed as they intentionally keep the employees from knowing the suffering that comes with asbestos inhalation.

Since the employees develop this infection because of the employer’s negligence, they have a right to file mesothelioma claims against the employers. Several laws and regulations have been put in place because of such risk of working with asbestos. Any employee can file a “mesothelioma claim” if he feels that malignant mesothelioma cancer is developed because of employers negligence.

Mesothelioma claims are nothing but lawsuits filed by people who developed mesothelioma to pay for their treatment and suffering. Mesothelioma suffering is something which puts people through extreme emotional and physical pain. Mesothelioma claim should be filed in time after the diagnosis. The lawsuit case should be filed properly by the mesothelioma lawyers as there are many loop holes which the errant can try to use to not paying the mesothelioma claim.

Mesothelioma funding by US Defence Deaprtment

We all know that veterans suffer the highest risk of mesothelioma cancer as thousands of buildings and navy ships are built using asbestos until 1970’s.


U.S Department of defence has announced an increase in spending on mesothelioma research to fight the mesothelioma cancer caused by asbestos exposure.

Several millions of dollars are being funded to identify ways to detect mesothelioma in early stages and also invent new ways to treat mesothelioma cancer.

Mesothelioma and UN members

A group of several United Nations members are putting their efforts to add chrysotile variety of asbestos to the world’s list of most hazardous substances. Canadian asbestos industry is the biggest loser if at all this happens. The Canadian asbestos industry supports several hundred workers.

Most of the asbestos from this industry is exported to the developing nations around the world where there are no proper regulations around handling on asbestos. Many are concerned that lack of regulations and inexperience in handling the asbestos material may expose many people to mesothelioma cancer in those nations.

Mesothelioma cancer is caused as a result of asbestos exposure. Asbestos exposure also causes lung cancer and asbestosis. The symptoms of this cancer are very subtle and cannot be diagnosed until the disease is severe. It takes years for this cancer to develop in a person exposed to asbestos and is not something that is imminent.
Many lawsuits have been filed around the world and especially in US there are hundreds of cases where the employers where sued for not informing the employees about the risks of asbestos exposure.

Corporate lust & Mesothelioma

What is the reason for many mesothelioma cancer cases that are being registered every day? For me it is just corporate lust and nothing else. Corporates in the asbestos mining and manufacturing industry put profits before people and expose workers to asbestos putting their health at risk. Asbestos exposure cause mesothelioma cancer to those who exposed, but those people who were not well informed are suing their employers resulting in multiple asbestos lawsuits. Mesothelioma lawsuits are keeping lawyers from Houston, Ohio, San Diego, Texas lawyers busy with preparing the cases for the victims.

Mesothelioma symptoms are hard to diagnose. It results in loss of physical ability etc but the patients have to go through painful lung cancer treatments.

Asbestos lawsuits provide the victims with money to cover their health and wealth damage. For asbestos lawsuits, you need to contact a good lawyer and there are many lawyers in the industry to defend your cases. Houston mesothelioma lawyers are famous for their dealing with mesothelioma lawsuits and hence you might have a match in Houston. All best in your attorney search.

Mesothelioma cases rising in Mexico

Recent studies done my America journal of Industrial Medicine shows that the diagnoses of mesothelioma which are caused by asbestos exposure are raising in Mexico. Developed nations like EU and North America already banned or regulated the use of asbestos while many other countries still continue to use it.

Since there is no so much demand in developed nations, the asbestos sellers are trying to increase their exposure in developing countries. If Mexico has to contain their rising cases of mesothelioma they either have to ban or at least regulate the use of asbestos in industries.

Many cases diagnosed for mesothelioma are as a result of exposure to asbestos at work places and many workers are not very aware of the side effects of playing at workplaces which involved working with asbestos.

There are many lawsuits that are being files in US for settlements with the employers.  There is a huge percentage of lawyers that from Houston, San Diego, Ohio. Houston mesothelioma lawyers are famous just for the percentage of the lawyers that hail from that region. Houston mesothelioma lawyers will sometimes fly to your place to understand the case as such is the returns in those cases.

Overall, Mexico has to either ban or at least regulate the use of asbestos at work places.

Living with Mesothelioma

There is nothing good about being diagnosed with mesothelioma – it is developed as a reason for asbestos exposure. More bad news is there is no definite cure for this cancer. It is important to maintain a good relationship with your doctor. You will depend on your doctor for care throughout your illness.


How you feel when you are receiving your mesothelioma treatment will depend in part on the level of trust you feel in your medical team. Doctors will do their best to relieve troubling symptoms such as chest pain (possibly from a pleural effusion, or fluid in the lungs) or abdominal swelling (ascites fluid). But there’s much more to dealing with advanced mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma is sometimes called asbestos cancer because it is almost always associated with having been exposed to lose asbestos fibers at some point in your life. It may help to read about asbestos exposure and to find materials created by those who have also received a mesothelioma diagnosis. Hope is the most important factor in living with mesothelioma.

Difficulty breathing and coughing are frequent symptoms in the earlier lung cancer stages. Report this type of symptom to your doctor as soon as possible. Early detection can give you greater hope. When you’re living with mesothelioma in its later stages, you may have chest pain from a pleural effusion (fluid in the lungs), swelling from ascites fluid (in the abdomen), and other more difficult symptoms. Talk to your doctor. Explore the Internet for information and mesothelioma advice.

Many doctors in cities like New York and Los Angeles are well versed in diagnosing and treating mesothelioma. Contact one of the centers of excellence for mesothelioma treatment—they are in states such as Ohio, California, Texas, New Jersey, Michigan, Florida and others.

Experienced asbestos mesothelioma lawyers are familiar with much of the research being done and may be able to direct you to active clinical trials. The right attorney may have relationships with doctors and other professionals who can make a difference in how you’re living with your mesothelioma. Find a mesothelioma attorney you trust and that you feel comfortable with—s/he can offer support and assistance in addition to potentially winning a settlement for you if your case warrants.

Source: http://www.mesothelioma-advice.org

Mesothelioma Lawsuit: Woman won $17 million

$17.87 million dollars have been awarded to a woman by the jury on a settlement involving asbestos exposure causing mesothelioma cancer. The woman, “Jayne Menssen” claimed she was exposed to asbestos during her employment with Union Asbestos and Rubber Co in 1960s’s as a secretary.

 Sustained asbestos exposure is known to cause malignant mesothelioma. Menssen said, the defendants
Pneumo Abex LLC and Honeywell International Inc. failed to inform her about the side effects of asbestos exposure intentionally. This was a common practice among employers misleading the employees to work with asbestos for their own gains. At the end many employers have ended up paying huge amounts to settle lawsuits filed by their employees.

 Mesothelioma cancer symptoms unveil themselves only after 20 – 30 years of exposure. In Menssen case, she was exposed to asbestos in 1960 where it took more time than regular. Prognosis is also difficult as the symptoms are subtle and the doctors themselves fail to diagnose mesothelioma properly. Treatment options include palliative methods aimed at relieving pain rather than killing the rumor cells causing the cancer.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, there is no safe level of asbestos exposure. Those who believe they have been exposed should seek routine medical checkups with a qualified physician for signs of asbestos exposure. The time taken for this trial is four weeks. Menssen received $10 million from Honeywell and $3.5 as compensatory damages and $4.37 million from Pneumo Abex as punitive damages.

Source: asbestos.net

Houston Mesothelioma Lawyers

Mesothelioma victims often end up with that cancer because of employers’ negligence and hence they tend to make settlements with employers either in court or out of the court. It all depends on how well you have built your case against your employer. In this kind of settlements, a lawyer is your best friend. Not any lawyer, but an attorney with good track record of dealing such cases. Where there are many lawyers or attorneys around US but Houston has got the biggest such group, dealing with mesothelioma or asbestos lawsuits.


http://www.houstonmesotheliomalaw.com/ is a Houston based group of lawyers who are specialized in such cases. Search around the net and you will find many of them. The important factor is to make sure you find an attorney with whom you are comfortable dealing your mesothelioma case. The amount of compensation you get depends on many factors like relationship of the employer to the employees, extent of illness etc. Lawyers are your best resources.

One thing to note is, for instance in Texas even if you have settled an asbestosis claim before or a pleural plaque claim, which if considered as non-cancerous, a new claim can be made if cancer has developed after the initial claim. These are the kind of things only experienced attorneys would know hence, taking legal advice be it from Houston lawyers or Delaware lawyers or any such group is important.

Radiation therapy as a treatment for Mesothelioma

In this post I will discuss one of the treatments to treat mesothelioma. The treatment is Intensity-modulated radiation Therapy (IMRT). IMRT is a kind of radiation therapy which uses x-rays of high energy to kill mesothelioma cancer cells to destroy the tumors.


Two types of radiation therapy are

1) External radiation therapy

2) Internal radiation therapy

External radiation therapy uses a machine to beam x-rays into the body where the mesothelioma cells are located. Proper care has to be taken in this method as some times good cells adjacent to the bad cells could also get damaged. IMRT is a type of three-dimensional therapy. A computer delivers the radiation as it moves around the patient’s body. The machine can shape the beams; adjust the strength of the beams and the angle at which they are delivered.

Internal radiation therapy also called at brachytherapy is a process in which chemicals are introduced to produce radiation at the mesothelioma cancer affected location in the body. A thin plastic tube is used and is inserted into the chest or abdomen.

Mesothelioma tumors are not discrete solid tumors but are usually spread over a large area and because of this it is very difficult to deliver radiation in sufficient doses properly to kill the tumor without damaging good cells. For this reason, radiation is mainly used to kill the remaining tumors after a surgery. Another usage of radiation is to relieve symptoms of mesothelioma. However, radiation has its side effects as in the process good cells can also get damaged.

Source: mesothelioma-data.com

Mesothelioma and ongoing research

Mesothelioma is one of the cancers where the survival rate of the victims is very less. Successful treatment is wholly dependent on how early it is diagnosed, but what makes the diagnosis difficult is the subtle nature of the symptoms in its early stages and only in the advanced stages the cancer shows up. So treating mesothelioma is mainly dependent on how early the disease is diagnosed.

 The traditional treatments have been so ineffective in treating mesothelioma and none of them were able to increase the survival rate of the victims by more than a few months. Mesothelioma research foundation of America is very focused on developing new and innovative treatments for this cancer. Some of them include

1)      New chemotherapy agents
2)      Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT)
3)      Immunotherapy
4)      Gene therapy

It is good to know that research has been going in this field for treating mesothelioma. The regulation in United States has immensely helped in reducing the number of cases but countries around the world are still playing catch up game.  They are still letting people mine asbestos and affecting their lives and putting them at risk of this cancer. Science has come off ages in past couple of decades but there is still lot of things left on the table for it to conquer.
I will detail on each of the treatments mentioned above in my future postings.

Asbetos ban to be considered by Philippine senate

What is called as a late realization happened in Philippine senate. Latey they are considering the ban of asbestos which is the root cause for deadly cancer mesothelioma. There is a lot of interest around getting asbestos banned and Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), the Associated Labor Unions (ALU) and the Building and Woodworkers International (BWI) are the major support groups to put pressure on the senate to get the bill paseed in the senate.

If the bill is passed in the senate, this would be a huge win for all the victims of mesothelioma cancer and more and more countries will try to do the same by banning asbestos at work places etc which would be hoped to see a decline of asbestos and mesothelioma deaths which are now seen at 2000 to 3000 per annum. Major lawsuits have been in pursuit to get some justice for the employer negligence towards their employees by exposing them to asbestos without letting them know the harmful effects of the material. Many lawyers are making a killing on such cases.

It is said that there is not level of exposure to asbestos is considered safe and banning it is the only way to elimate asbestos related cancer called mesothelioma.ALU hopes that the bill if gets passes in the senate will be protecting Filipinos from the side effects of asbestos exposure.

Atleast this is the time where all the governments realize the importance of banning asbestos and save thousands of employees and thier families to who are at risk of asbestos exposure.

Mesothelioma - Employer Sued

Today I was going through the news articles and found there was a Woman who sued the employer on behalf of his father. Samuel Mann server the US army 3 years from 1959 to 1961 and later he worked as a mechanic at crown cork till early 1970s and later he did construction work for 7 years for Norfolk Southern Railroad.

His daughter is suing these companies for letting his father exposed to asbestos at work without prior indication. As you see, Mann had worked in asbestos related work many years ago but the effects are visible now after several 10’s of years. Mesothelioma is very hard to diagnose and the survival rate is very low among the patients.

As per other statistics, every year 2 to 3 thousand of new patients are recorded to be affected by this deadly cancer which is caused my mesothelioma.

On a whole, the patients family has to go through severe crisis but if they win the settlement cases the make against the employers, they get sometimes millions of dollars but the loss of a human is not comparable to the money they get. Hope the employers around the US make their employees know the bad effects of asbestos and they themselves can escape from costly lawsuits.

Source: http://www.asbestos.net/

Doctors on Mesothelioma

In this video different types of  mesothelioma are explained by a medical doctor. There are 5 types of mesothelioma.

Peritoneal Mesothelioma
Malignant Mesothelioma
Pericardial Mesothelioma
Pleural Mesothelioma
Benign Mesothelioma

The Mayor of Landon Road Dies from Mesothelioma

“The Mayor” of Landon Road,  Robert W. Landon died from mesothelioma. He served U.S during the second world war 2. He used to work in the cargo ships, engine rooms etc and this could have been the reason for exposure to asbestos. It is widely used in military ships, but is extremely harmful to inhale the dust. When it lodges into the thin membrane that lines the chest cavity and protects the lungs, called the mesothelium, it can cause tumors to form.

There are 5 different types of mesothelioma and the most common is pleral mesothelioma which is also most difficult to cure. More often than not, the symptoms will be visible only after 20 to 30 years of exposure.
This form of cancer is rare but deadly as the statistics tells us that single digit percent of people will live after 5 years of diagnosis and the prognosis is dependent on multiple factors which wsa discussed in my other post.

Asbestos should have been long banned but it still widely used in western countries. A number of people in hundreds are dying and many are puzzled what wrong they have done. Many people who developed mesothelioma go for settlements with the employer to secure the future of their dependants. Although therapies such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy can be used, it is usually inoperable.



Source: Asbestos.net