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Sunday, May 31, 2009

Beware Of The Danger of Asbestos

For the past months, one word has shocked my being - cancer. Since the middle of last year, I've had 2 friends diagnosed with it and another one this year, and we lost her a week ago. My grandpa died of cancer many years ago...and an uncle died of lung cancer about 2-3 years ago.

Reason enough for me to hate the word? No. But more than enough for me to resolved to know more about it.

For me cancer is a malady and an occurrence that we can't simply do anything about. WRONG!

I just have to look around and I can see clearly one form of cancer that can be explained...lung cancer! While some associate it to smoking and unhealthy lifestyle, I say it is also sad that one leading cause of it is work-related, just my uncle who passed away. He was diagnose with
mesothelioma. Though the doctor mentioned it to us in passing that this can be cause by exposure of certain chemicals at work, we were busy trying to look for cure and treatment to the illness. It is only very recent that I get to understand more about mesothelioma from a friend. One hard fact about this illness is that most of the time, it only gets detected at its later stage. And since I am no expert on the topic, let me share with you this online source which offers different information related to mesothelioma, from symptoms, types to possible its causes.

I was going through the site and one reality hit me...my uncle's death was caused by his type of job, he was exposed to asbestos. IT Guy had to remind me last night what it is...reminding me of that white thing we used at the lab in our chemistry class to protect our beakers and other glass wares in the labs. He said that thing is poisonous and can cause cancer! I was like....why in the world did I not know that?! He also added that manufacturers of construction parts here like stuff people used as insulators in their houses are using that and are not taking extra precaution for their employees. My jaw dropped. While he assured me that he will make sure we don't have that at home, my worry is for people who are exposed to it, just like my uncle!

I did some online research and it saddens me to know that even in the US many people are exposed to it at work and are getting sick because of it. Then I realize we missed to do one thing for our uncle...that is fighting his cause with his employer, it could have made a difference with the lives of their employees there. We could have consulted a
Mesothelioma Lawyer or anyone who is an expert to the subject matter.

Nevertheless, it is never too late to make up!

I am making this post so people like me who are doing online research about mesothelioma and who might stumble this blog will be know that there are people and agency who can help them with this issue.


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1 comment:

jam said...

i'm sorry to hear about the death of your uncle. my father died of colon cancer several years ago. he's involved in an asbestos suit against his employer. good post with one criticism. all of the links are to a lawyers office who is trying to win a case against asbestos. i would of put in a link to a medical site with information about mesothelioma.