Following the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York there was a layer of dust and debris over Manhattan which was full of asbestos, mercury, fiberglass and other carcinogenic particles.

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council 300 to 400 tons of asbestos fibers were used to construct the World Trade Center. Now many people are displaying symptoms of mesothelioma having inhaled those particles and no one really knows how many more will go on to have this fatal disease.

By 2012, 1,187 of those who were present at the World Trade Center on the day of and after the attacks had been diagnosed with cancer and by 2015 that figure had more than doubled. However, given the latency period for mesothelioma which can range from 11 years post exposure up to 20 or even 50 years, no one yet knows how many sufferers there will be

If you have been diagnosed with any an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. To find out how we can help you recover for your asbestos related claim, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP at (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.

Every year, thousands of people across the United States are diagnosed with mesothelioma due to working with asbestos and they and their loved ones may be able to file an asbestos personal injury lawsuit and recover significant damages.

The lawsuit could be filed either against the company that the person was working for, or the company that manufactured the item with asbestos or an insurance company or an asbestos personal injury victims’ trust fund which is in place for companies that have stopped trading or become bankrupt.

Mesothelioma will usually become apparent up to 40 years after exposure and many states allow people to wait for up the five years after diagnosis to file a lawsuit, but in California you only have one year, so you need to move quickly. If a spouse or relative has died from the disease, then the heirs usually have between one and three years after the death the file a claim for wrongful death.

If you have been diagnosed with any an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. To find out how we can help you recover for your asbestos related claim, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP at (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.

When people are first diagnosed with mesothelioma, they have to make the decision whether or not to have treatment, given that the treatment can rarely totally destroy the cancer.

For those who decide to let nature takes it course, most mesothelioma develops rapidly although a few due have a slower growing form of the disease. However, even a slow growing type can suddenly speed up and spread rapidly.

If diagnosed with mesothelioma, those who live longer tend to be female, younger and in good health but in almost all cases those who turn down treatment will not live as long as those who have treatment.

Those diagnosed at the very early stage, stage 1a live on average two years without treatment and those who have aggressive surgery usually live over three years.

There are few studies as to how long those without treatment do survive as most people opt for some form of intervention although one study looked at survival rates of 238 cases which were diagnosed between 1977 and 2009 when the average survival rate for untreated patients was 6.4 months and those who had been treated was 11.3 months.

If you have been diagnosed with any an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. To find out how we can help you recover for your asbestos related claim, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP at (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.

When it comes to the fatal disease mesothelioma, those Americans greatest at risk are veterans, first responders and teachers.

Veterans make up only eight percent of the U.S. population but account for a third of those suffering from mesothelioma. Navy veterans especially are at risk of the disease, as they spent decades exposed to asbestos on board ships and in shipyards.

According to research by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, when it comes to firefighters and teachers, they are twice as likely as the general American public to be diagnosed with mesothelioma.

Teachers are affected as most schools built before 1980 contain asbestos with more than 50 schools in 13 states, including California, having reported possible asbestos exposure over recent months.

Organizations which represent these groups oppose the proposed FACT Act which will mean that the funds set up to compensate victims of mesothelioma and other asbestos linked diseases will have to spend much more time and effort to comply with the bill, meaning claims processing and paying victims will slow down, and funds will become more scarce.

In addition, the bill would states victims’ personal information, including medical information and partial Social Security numbers be made public putting them at risk of identity theft.

If you have been diagnosed with any an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. To find out how we can help you recover for your asbestos related claim, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP at (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.

Anyone who thinks they were exposed to asbestos during their working career especially if they worked in a power plant or in the navy, oil refinery, motor parts manufacturing or any other industrial center should ask their physician for an annual x ray to check whether there is any evidence of asbestos damage to their lungs.

Mesothelioma can take up to fifty years to show the first symptoms which are usually shortness of breath, pain in the chest or abdomen, a cough and weight loss. The symptoms can come on very quickly and if you were working first in the 1950’s, 1960’s, or the 1970’s, in one of the risk professions then it is worth having a checkup.

Those who are diagnosed with mesothelioma are usually first diagnosed as having pneumonia with an average age of 72 therefore having checks before that age can help the victim undergo treatment much earlier. Some states have a higher incidence of mesothelioma, including Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Louisiana, Washington, and Oregon but the disease is also diagnosed in other states across the country.

If you have been diagnosed with any an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. To find out how we can help you recover for your asbestos related claim, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP at (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.

A new documentary which is to be shown on April 2 will look at cancer, where it was and where it is now. The documentary will not only look at the history of cancer but it will explore the major cancer breakthroughs which have been made in treating all type of cancer including mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma is a terminal cancer which is caused by exposure to asbestos and it can take decades for symptoms to develop. However unlike some other cancers there is no cure and 45,000 Americans have already died from mesothelioma with around 3,000 more being diagnosed every single year. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that way back in 1918, even though the United States government knew that there was an abnormally high risk of early death to those who worked with asbestos, they did not issue any safety guidelines until 1979.

As well as being interesting to understand the history of cancer and its treatment, the documentary will also show the major advances being made in treatment and highlight those drugs currently being researched which may make major inroads to help to find a cure from mesothelioma.

If you have been diagnosed with any an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. To find out how we can help you recover for your asbestos related claim, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP at (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.

Research is ongoing as part of a $5 million study which has been prompted by high rates of a rare, deadly lung cancer called mesothelioma in iron ore miners.

The dust from the mines has long been a concern for Iron Range communities such as Keewatin, Minnesota which received $60,000 for a new street sweeper from U.S. Steel in 2008 as part of an agreement over dust coming from the company’s iron ore plant to the south.

The most significant finding of the research so far has come from health tests of miners’ spouses, who unlike the miners do not show elevated rates of lung abnormalities or disease. However the figures among the miners themselves make for sobering reading, and last week, the state Health Department released new data showing 21 additional miners stricken with mesothelioma, for a total of 101 since the cluster was first identified in 2003. Almost all have died.

University health researchers have found that iron ore workers are stricken with mesothelioma at more than double the expected rate. While the research has linked miners’ illnesses to taconite dust exposure over many years, it did not explicitly blame taconite particles. Commercial asbestos used decades ago in mining operations remains the prime suspect in the cancers.

If you have been diagnosed with any an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. To find out how we can help you recover for your asbestos related claim, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP at (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.

There is now new evidence of people developing mesothelioma having had no history of exposure to asbestos at work, but instead, they have been exposed to asbestos while repairing or renovating their homes.

Mesothelioma is a highly aggressive and currently incurable cancer caused almost exclusively by exposure to asbestos dust. Most of those who contract mesothelioma have worked in an industry such as construction or mining where they were exposed over a long period of time.

A group of researchers at Aarhus University Hospital in Slagelse, Denmark have said that they have studied mesothelioma patients who were exposed to asbestos while cutting into and drilling roof sheeting in their homes. Neither had ever worked in an industry where they were exposed to asbestos. The researchers say that it shows how important it is to take care when working with asbestos products as the dust which is a result of cutting or drilling or sanding can never be expelled from the body once inhaled and it is that which can lead to mesothelioma. And it only needs one single exposure.

Usually homes built after the 1980s contain very little asbestos because it was known that it could cause cancer, but those built earlier, may very well contain asbestos in the roof, ceiling or floor tiles or insulation.

To minimize the risk of mesothelioma, anyone planning to do home repairs who thinks there may be asbestos in the home should always contact an asbestos professional.

If you have been diagnosed with any an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. To find out how we can help you recover for your asbestos related claim, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP at (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.

Mongolia has just announced it has the first case of mesothelioma in the country.

The victim is a 47 year old woman who worked in a coal burning power plant for some 28 years. As often happens, asbestos is used in the power plants in Mongolia as insulation.

Given that more than 80 percent of mesothelioma cases worldwide have a history of asbestos exposure, and the power plants in Mongolia have a large amount of asbestos, Mongolia is now preparing itself for a significant number of mesothelioma cases and other asbestos related diseases.

In the United States there are more than 50,000 power plants and they too have a been a major source of asbestos exposure due to the insulation of pipes and boilers especially. In addition sometimes the floors and ceilings were also made of asbestos to reduce the fire risk. Although the use of asbestos in the power plants was discontinued in the 1970s many of the old plants still have it and workers are now being told to wear protective gear in those areas, but that does not help those who were exposed to the asbestos in previous years who are at risk of developing mesothelioma now.

If you have been diagnosed with any an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. To find out how we can help you recover for your asbestos related claim, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP at (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.

Two researchers from the Center for the Study of Environmental Cancer in Monfalcone, Italy have analyzed data from registries of cancer around the world and they concluded that in some parts of the world, mesothelioma has reached epidemic proportions.

They discovered an upward trend in the incidence of mesothelioma in Australia and New Zealand as well as several European countries. The highest number of cases in Europe was in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Malta and Belgium. Interestingly the rate was relatively low in Japan and Central Europe.

They were not surprised to discover that those countries where asbestos was widely used, usually in the building industry, had the highest rates of mesothilioma. For example, after the Second World War in the UK, the houses were built of cement which was strengthened with asbestos, and Australia had some of the largest asbestos mines in the world.

The researchers think that many countries are still ignoring the risk of the disease, and in the United States, although the rates of mesothelioma are slowly declining, there are still around 2,500 cases diagnosed each year.

If you have been diagnosed with any an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. To find out how we can help you recover for your asbestos related claim, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP at (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.