Mesothelioma Can Strike Anyone

 

Most occupational diseases mainly strike people employed in particular trades or occupational settings over an extended period of time. Asbestosis, for example, is most often seen in workers employed in trades that involve substantial exposure to asbestos, including insulators, boilermakers and others. Mesothelioma, a cancer of the lung lining caused by asbestos exposure, does not respect such boundaries.

Certainly, people who worked directly with or around asbestos are at substantially increased risk of contracting mesothelioma, but even very brief or low level exposures can trigger the development of mesothelioma. The term “household exposure” has been used to explain how workers’ spouses and children were exposed to asbestos that traveled home with workers, in their hair and clothes. Others were exposed through a brief summer job or because they lived near an asbestos mine like the residents of Libby, Montana. And some developed mesothelioma simply because they worked in a building in which asbestos was used, often a school or hospital.

Here are profiles of some prominent people who, like tens of thousands of other hard-working citizens, have been diagnosed with mesothelioma. This disease does not follow any rules. It can reach into any family. And it has robbed us of heroes, leaders, artists, athletes and scientists who have changed our country, as well as hard-working men and women on whose labor modern American industry was built.