mesothelioma

05/15/2006

The Six Decade Coverup

Corporations that manufacture asbestos products have known about the dangers of asbestos-related diseases for more than six decades. - Mesothelioma Information

Six decades is an awfully long time to lie to your employees in order to extract profits from their labour. I'm not sur ehow we're expected to trust our multi natioanl corporations/ large corproations when they have betrayed this trust so willingly and so violently in the past. Yet we do. Every time we turn a blind eye to employment practises that they used ot use on us, and now use on people in more unfortunate situations - The deadly gasses let off by some glues/materials in sport shoe factories, the pollutants pumped into the water supplies around Coca Cola factories in places like India.. yes all those things they usedto do to us, they ar enow doing to someone poorer, someone with a quieter voice, someone powerless to tand up to the might of the big guys.

Mesothelioma is not about rich white Americans, it is about the ongoing struggle to find justice for all people who are exposed to deadly work practises in order for big companies to make profits

Average Mesothelioma 'Award' $6 mil

It was stated in the Wall Street Journal that if a mesothelioma case goes to trial the average award in 2001 was $6 million. Of course no one can guarantee that you will win but if you can prove that the cause of your mesothelioma was unsafe workplace procedures and practices then you have a better chance of winning. Either way even if you lose you do not make any financial contribution to the cost of the legal proceedings. - Mesothelioma resource Online

I would love to know how much of that $6 million the victim gets and how much goes in legal fees. No one seems to be talking about legal fees, this makes me a tad nervous. Especially if people are offering free court cases in the off chance you win - someone is paying for those fees.

05/11/2006

Mesothelioma, The Disease that Helps the Bad Guys

"Mesothelioma may not develop until 15 - 40 years after you have been exposed to asbestos, which is why we are seeing an increase in cases now. The number of cases is expected to peak around 2018 and then start to decline." - cancer Help UK

15-40 years? The guys who sat in their offices and allowed workers to breathe in deadly fibres will be dead by the time half these cases are diagnosed! Will you ever feel like justice has been served when the people who caused you to get sick never have to face up to what they did?

Mesothelioma a Man's Disease

If you're a female, you've got to love sexism in cases like this:

"There are about 4 times as many cases in men as in women. This is probably because many cases have been caused by exposure to asbestos at work" - Cancer Research UK

05/10/2006

Mesothelioma, just Another Tobacco

Everyone has their chosen fight in life, for me it has always been animal testing (and will continue to be), for others it is tobacco, maybe it just happens to be a bad day or a moment of enlightenment when you think that somewhere, somehow, someone with immense power is deliberately causing harm to other people, and no one is really trying to stop them. Mesothelioma doesn't seem to have any crusaders.

I simply can't imagine working for a company, knowing that the asbestos we mine or use as part of our materials is slowly suffocating the lungs of not only our workers, but their families, the children who run through the asbestos laden halls of their school, the people who run past a building site, breathing in the asbestos fibres floating through the air. How is it possible that humans get to that state where profits can be killed for.

Or like the Niueans, living in a place that you know is killing you, but no money to change it. Coming home every night to the deadly asbestos air.

Who are you people? You chief exceutives of giant tobacco companies, of mining companies that unemotionally send workers, families, innocent people to their deaths? How do you go to sleep at night? Counting the numebr of people you have kileld that day?

Mesothelioma Bad Guys #2

I hate websites like this one, dripping with fake concern that covers the noise of them rubbing their hands together with glee at the change to make money off your pain. What a world we live in, when one company happily makes you sick by covering up the fact that the materials you ar forced to work with are slowly giving you cancer, then the next company slots neatly in to take them to court, grab a massive cut of YOUR COMPENSATION, then leave you to die quietly.
Are they trying to appeal to the greedy side of innocent sufferers? Put a spark in your fearful eye with promises like

"If you would like more information about Mesothelioma settlements, please fill out the information below for a no-cost assessment of your rights to a Multi Million dollar compensation package. Our lawyers are among the national leaders in Asbestos litgation and have some of the largest recoveries in the country."

What can you do? For me, the use of aspestos is like the use of cigarettes, or any other form of toxins that have, over the years polluted entire communities and caused massive suffering, only to be cleanly swept up by lawyers. Noone is offering a different solution and noone is really on the side of those suffering the effects of Mesothelioma, helping them figure out a way to find some form of compensation for the horror they must go through. It's almost like the lawyers and the initial companies are ont he same team, as I'm sure they are...

I'm no expert, but I do know the power of community and allowing people to talk to one another directly instead of through a lawyer. I can't find an online support group where people can discuss their options or band together, maybe there needs to be one.

The last thing you need when suffering from a preventable disease that you have already been tricked into suffering, is a greedy lawyer plotting how to take your compensation.

The Asbestos Coverup

When I told my mum that I was embarking on this project, she informed me that on her last visit to Niue the entire island was covered with asbestos laden rooves and houses, slowly deterioirating. Since then, there has been a cyclone, and she cringed as she recalled the sheer lack of talk about what exactly was going to be done about this fairly serious problem.

It always surprises me just how happy we are to overlook the plight of those less wealthy - while our cleanup teams wear masks and protective gear, those that have been living in the houses for many years, even since the threat of asbestos was made clear, have been living with no protection at all.

Funnily enough, a case in Montana has found that "Grace knew when they took over the mine in 1960 that the vermiculite ore was tainted with asbestos and that asbestos exposure was deadly." While these guys are in deep trouble of their own - facing jail terms. I wonder, if people knew the threat way back then, why were houses ridden with asbestos still being built in places like Niue in the 1970's to the claims that 'no one really knew the threat then.'

Of course, Mesothelioma is not the only threat to the health of thousands of people who have been exposed to asbestos, those spikey fibres stick right to your lungs, causing coughing, respiatory problems and a range of other negative health effets - even better, as, I'm sure those in the know have understtod for a good couple of decades, because of the nature of asbestos, it can be years before the effects are known, making it fairly difficult to pin them back to asbestos.

There are certinly some bad guys in this story, murderers really. The question is, how do those who have been affected by diseases such as mesothelioma find justice and live out a decent life?

05/09/2006

Mesothelioma Lawyers

I am always skeptical of a lawyers role in helping sufferers of preventable diseases. They seem to add unnecessary trauma and manage to take a massive portion of the compnsation that rightly belongs to the sufferer.

It looks like lawyers are having a field day with another mass effecting disease. Proceed with caution, you may lose more than your health!

However it's hard to stomach the fact that "Many of the companies responsible for exposing their employees to asbestos were well aware of the dangers and effects" - Mesolink and it must be hard to sit by and let these companys go about their profiteering at the expense of your health. I'm interested in exploring other options outside of or as well as the legal avenue.

05:39 Posted in what can you do? | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this

About Mesothelioma

Mesothelioma is one of the deadliest diseases known to man; the average life span of an inflicted person from the time of diagnosis until death is less than 24 months.

Mesothelioma is a disease that is almost 100% preventable; the only known cause is via exposure to Asbestos. Asbestos is a seemingly harmless white powdery substance used a lot in older buildings and industrial products. The dangers of Asbestos have only been discovered relitively recently, and while all areas affected by asbestos are slowly being discovered and removed, the ongoing effects on people who have worked with or around Asbestos will continue well into the future.

Asbestos has been used since the 1800's, the amount used greately increased during WW2. because Asbestos comes in the form of fibres that can float through the air and be inhaled or swallowed it causes havoc on your body.

Asbestos is mined and because of it's 'natural' status, would appear to be harmless, however it's widespread, obviously untested use is yet another example of how little we know about the world around us. What a tragedy.