Beaufort, SC Mesothelioma Lawyer

Beaufort, SC Mesothelioma Attorney

Mesothelioma is an aggressive, rare form of cancer that develops after prolonged exposure to asbestos and the inhalation of asbestos fibers. Mesothelioma occurs in the thin layers of internal tissue that line the organs, where asbestos fibers attach. If mesothelioma develops as a result of this attachment, it can be painful, life-altering, and deadly, particularly because there is no known cure.

If you have developed mesothelioma, you may want to speak with a Beaufort, SC mesothelioma lawyer who has pursued asbestos exposure claims before.

Statistics Behind Mesothelioma

According to statistics provided by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), over 45,000 people in the United States died due to mesothelioma between 1999 and 2015. In the years since, the death rate has remained around 2,500 per year, likely due to older buildings having their asbestos gutted by removal teams wearing protective gear. South Carolina has a mesothelioma death rate of 7.1 per one million people, which rests just below the national average.

How Mesothelioma Occurs

The only way to contract mesothelioma is by inhaling asbestos fibers that become attached to the lining of your internal organs. There is no other known way to develop the disease. The incubation period for mesothelioma is so long that you might not show symptoms for it until decades after you have inhaled asbestos fibers. At the time of inhalation, you may not even know that you are breathing in a hazardous substance.

When you inhale asbestos fibers, you do so by breathing in dust that comes from asbestos that’s drilled into, broken, deteriorated, or otherwise disturbed. Asbestos on its own that isn’t rotting away may not result in loose fibers. However, if you do inhale those fibers, they may attach themselves to several of your internal organs, particularly the stomach, lungs, testes, and heart. The fibers may then cause the cells in those organs to mutate gradually until they turn into cancer cells.

Sources of Asbestos Exposure

If you develop mesothelioma later in your life, there is a high chance that you were exposed to asbestos fibers at some point years prior. Asbestos was a mineral used in a lot of construction materials throughout the 20th century, according to the Asbestos and Silica Claims Procedure Act of 2006. Thousands of office buildings, factories, and even homes were built using asbestos-based materials, like insulation, cement, and adhesives.

Many older buildings still contain asbestos, as removing it may cause even more problems by introducing microscopic asbestos fibers into the air. Companies throughout Beaufort, SC have faced claims introduced by workers who suffered asbestos-related illnesses, which were possibly a result of working so close to the hazardous material. Companies like H.B. Die Castings have been investigated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) due to their use of asbestos in the past.

Symptoms of Mesothelioma

The symptoms of mesothelioma may vary, depending on what form of the disease you develop and where in your body it manifests. In the beginning, your symptoms may resemble that of a bad flu or an internal infection. As the disease progresses, your symptoms may get worse and eventually severely impact your quality of life. Here are some of the different forms that mesothelioma can take inside your body and the symptoms that you may feel:

• Pleural Mesothelioma: This form manifests in the thin tissue lining of the lungs. Due to the severe strain on the lungs that this disease can cause, the symptoms may at first resemble a bronchial infection or a persistent cold. If you start to feel any of these symptoms and they do not go away, you should reach out to a doctor:
  • A really bad cough
  • Unbearable chest pains
  • Unexplainable weight loss
  • Shortness of breath
  • Lumps forming on your chest
• Peritoneal Mesothelioma: This variant takes shape in the thin tissue lining surrounding the abdomen. Developing this form of mesothelioma may result in bad chest pains, which you may be quick to dismiss as nothing serious. If they persist, it is recommended that you see a doctor. Symptoms may include:
  • Pain in your abdomen
  • Swelling in your abdomen
  • Unexplainable weight loss
  • Prolonged nausea
• Other forms of mesothelioma are considerably rare, so much so that there have not been enough cases for doctors to truly examine them and determine a definitive series of symptoms. These forms include mesothelioma of the tunica vaginalis, which affects the tissue lining of the tests and may appear as a malignant testicular mass, and pericardial mesothelioma, which affects the tissue lining of the heart.

Prolonged Exposure to Asbestos and the Risk Factors Involved

Thankfully, prolonged exposure to asbestos does not automatically mean that you will develop mesothelioma. If that were the case, the death rate would be catastrophic. Having mesothelioma is a rare occurrence, and most people who are exposed to asbestos do not get the disease at all. However, other people may develop asbestosis, lung cancer, or another chronic asbestos-related condition

Asbestos is naturally mined from the earth and was frequently used in construction, primarily because it is a naturally strong insulator and resistant to heat. Before it was found to be hazardous, it was used in many different building elements. As a result, asbestos still exists in buildings across the country, and this is a problem that won’t be going away anytime soon.

You will not develop mesothelioma a few days after inhaling asbestos fibers. The fibers may stay in your body for decades, causing your organs to slowly inflame and your cells to transform into cancer. You might not be diagnosed with mesothelioma until decades after your exposure, or you may never develop it all. It depends on a multitude of factors, including your level of exposure to asbestos and whether you are genetically predisposed to cancer.

Contact a Mesothelioma Lawyer Today

Learning that you have a chronic disease brought on by exposure to a hazardous material, which you may not even have known about, can be infuriating, confusing, and painful to come to terms with. Your quality of life has been irreparably changed, and the only thing you may be able to do for yourself is to seek compensatory damages from the party that exposed you to asbestos.

The attorneys at Wallace & Graham, P.A., are more than prepared to assist you in building a case against the responsible party, gathering the evidence that proves liability, and ensuring that you aren’t taken advantage of at any point. Contact us to schedule a consultation today.