Asbestos is a mineral that is like a fiber. It became a very popular component in building materials because it was so heat resistant. It will be found in house insulation, pipe insulation and also in niche places, such as plaster and joint compound.

Mesothelioma is a cancer that attacks the mesothelium.

OK you ask... What's the mesothelium? It is the lining of many of the body's cavities. The two most common places where this cancer strikes is the area around the lungs (The pleural space) and the area around the abdomen (The peritoneum).

Who is at risk?

Most people who were exposed to asbestos are at risk. There are certainly classes of people who are more at risk and a short list of people are:

* Railroad Workers
* Insulation Installers
* Shipbuilders
* Construction Workers
* Factory Workers actually making asbestos products
* Spouse and Children of workers exposed to Asbestos

This last category has been the most surprising to me. In this day and age you can expect that there is some danger and risk associated with working in a factory with dangerous substances, but spouses and children do not take on that risk.

Do a search for Mesothelioma on the internet and you come up with a lot of lawyers advertising that they take on Mesothelioma lawsuits.

Why?

The answer is that Mesothelioma is a pathoneumonic disease. (I had to look that up the first time I saw the word too.) Pathoneumonic is a fancy way of saying that there is basically one cause for the disease. In this case mesothelioma is a disease that is caused by asbestos. That's it.

So that means that if you can prove where you were exposed to the asbestos, then you can prove your mesothelioma case. Again the difficult legal part is proving where the exposure to asbestos was.