Mesothelioma FAQ

A legal claim is a demand made for an injury caused by someone else. That injury may be mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer caused almost exclusively by breathing asbestos fibers.

With a mesothelioma claim, compensation may be owed for all the injuries connected to that condition, including things like medical bills, lost wages, and pain and a debilitated lifestyle.

People with mesothelioma can file a lawsuit to receive compensation. But filing a lawsuit isn’t the only thing to do about a mesothelium claim - and it isn’t the only way to get money for it.

Mesothelioma is a cancer of the mesothelium, a thin layer of tissue surrounding many of the body’s major organs.

Mesothelioma It can affect different parts of the body, including the lungs, heart, and abdomen. It is one of the most severe and aggressive cancers caused by asbestos exposure.

There are outliers who have lived up to a decade after a mesothelioma diagnosis, but the prognosis can be grim,¹ from a handful of months to a couple of years. Very few mesothelioma patients ever go into remission.

¹ Mesothelioma - Prognosis, Penn Medicine (University of Pennsylvania) website.

Mesothelioma can first appear as a shortness of breath or chest pain.

Unfortunately, there are no noticeable symptoms and often symptoms can be confused with other diseases and even treatment given for such symptoms.

Screening recommendations are minimal, because a mesothelioma diagnosis is not common.

A patient’s workplace is frequently the starting point for diagnosis. We can help with that, using W.A.R.D., our database of worksites, jobs and products that used asbestos. Search for free.

Mesothelioma is caused almost exclusively by asbestos exposure.

Asbestos can cause a variety of diseases, with overlapping symptoms.

One type of asbestos-related disease is a cancer known as mesothelioma.

Almost all cases of mesothelioma are caused by asbestos exposure.

Genetics plays a factor with all cancer, including mesothelioma. In addition, there is a mineral known as erionite that is sometimes associated with mesothelioma. But asbestos is used much more widely, and asbestos exposure is typically the cause of mesothelioma cases.

Unfortunately, even a tiny exposure to asbestos can lead to mesothelioma over time, especially if a person is exposed at a younger age.

No. Fortunately, mesothelioma is less common than other asbestos-related diseases.

Out of the millions of people exposed to asbestos at work, and millions more exposed by workers who brought it into the home, here are an estimated 38,000 global mesothelioma cases annually.²

Most people develop other health problems from asbestos. The most common are asbestosis and pleural plaques.

In addition to mesothelioma, asbestos-related diseases include a number of other cancers:
• Throat Cancer (laryngeal, pharyngeal, or esophageal)³
• Ovarian Cancer
• Stomach Cancer
• Colon Cancer
• Lung Cancer
• (asbestos interacts with cigarette smoke to make the risks of lung cancer fifty times greater)

No. Mesothelioma is not contagious.

Like most cancers, mesothelioma is not contagious and can’t be passed from one person to another. But genetics play a role in all cancer, and some families may carry a greater risk.

In addition, asbestos fibers are easily carried on the body or clothing, and many people were exposed to asbestos by family members, even if they never worked around asbestos. This is generally known as second-hand exposure.

20-50 years. This is known as the latency period of mesothelioma.

Like all asbestos-diseases, mesothelioma develops over many decades and takes a long time to reveal its damage, generally twenty to fifty years.

Asbestos also does not have a taste or smell, so a person does not have a strong immediate reaction to it. Health problems like mesothelioma only appear many decades later.

The younger you were when you were first exposed to asbestos, the more likely you are to develop an asbestos disease like mesothelioma.⁴

⁴ Dose-response modeling of NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated diseases: asbestos, lung cancer, and malignant mesothelioma as examples., Cox Jr, L.A., 2019. Critical Reviews in Toxicology, 49(7), pp.614-635.

Yes, secondary asbestos exposure (domestic / household asbestos exposure) absolutely can cause mesothelioma.

Asbestos is extremely sticky and durable, and workers brought it home on their clothes, hair and skin. Family members who came into regular contact with asbestos-tainted clothing or rode in family vehicles with asbestos dust often develop asbestos-related diseases.

This is known as second-hand asbestos exposure. From the perspective of the body, the origin of an asbestos fiber is irrelevant - once it is inhaled or swallowed, it embeds in the human body and initiates its slow-moving damage.

Beating and washing asbestos-dusted work clothes can result in inhaling a lot of dust, and in some cases, spouses develop mesothelioma, even if the worker did not.

No, but women are more likely to have an undetected case of mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma cases are often highest among people who worked industrial jobs or construction during the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

Given social demographics at the time, more men were exposed to asbestos on the job.

But millions of people were exposed to asbestos at home.

And in 2021, the CDC said that mesothelioma in women had increased in the past two decades. The report suggests:

• Women were less likely to be tested, especially those with second-hand asbestos exposure.
• Women who didn’t work around asbestos traditionally didn’t consider themselves at risk, nor did their healthcare providers.
• Women’s deaths were less frequently attributed to asbestos exposure, but because of less investigation and reporting.

1 out of 5 women with mesothelioma were homemakers.

In addition, many women were exposed to asbestos by using products containing talcum powder. Talc and talc products like cosmetics have often been contaminated with asbestos.

⁵ Examining the Human Health Effects of Asbestos and the Methods of Mitigating Such Impacts, Statement of Senator Linda Reinstein, Hearing Before the Committee on Environment and Public Works, 110th Congress, First Session Senate Hearing 110-1096 (June 12, 2007).