Asbestos

Asbestos is the cause of many ailments and diseases, including the type of cancer disease called Mesothelioma. Its name comes from the Ancient Greece and it means “inextinguishable”, because of its astonishing fireproof qualities; they were aware of the damaging effects that it had upon workers as well.

Asbestos has been widely used in a variety of things for many years. Its modern use is for insulation, and it has been used in structures and items from walls and ceilings to hairdryers and toasters. The industrial revolution made this mineral become popular, as a safe (for fireproof) and operative form of insulation. Although the risks had been known several hundred years earlier, they weren’t taken into account when its popularity increased; at least, not until the 1900s, when professionals started to notice that every asbestos worker presented that disease and their death was due to the exposure.

After an English doctor made the first diagnosis of asbestosis somewhere in the 1920s, there were stepped up laws to offer better protection against asbestos in almost every country, but they weren’t all effective; asbestos was still widely used by the asbestos companies and manufacturers, at least until the mid-1970s.Nowadays, many new cases are diagnosed every year, their number increasing very quickly. As a consequence, many law firms have trained lawyers to deal especially with this type of cases. The mineral is still being used around the world, even if the laws seem to be far more severe.