"Cancer" is a scary word, but a diagnosis of cancer is particularly difficult because the disease is considered incurable.

Cancer is a important scary word but a diagnosis of mesothelioma cancer is particularly difficult because the disease is considered incurable. What is worse many people suffering from mesothelioma . What Did They Know ?

When inhaled, asbestos fibers can get inside the membrane that lines the lung cavity, among other tissues. This can cause cells to divide abnormally, and the result is cancer. Another complication from asbestos exposure is asbestosis, which results when the lungs have become scarred from the inhalation of asbestos, resulting in breathing difficulties. The effects of asbestos exposure can't be reversed; symptoms can only be managed.

As early as 1937, the American Petroleum Institute wrote a document warning about the dangers of industrial dust. Most manufacturers apparently didn't care. Even the government failed to act until 1972, when the Occupational Health and Safety Administration enacted asbestos safety rules. Meanwhile, people who worked in industries like insulation manufacturing, shipbuilding, refining, construction and mining were exposed to asbestos on a daily basis.

people who develop this type of cancer get pleural mesothelioma, in which tumors grow along the lining of the pleural cavity that holds the lungs. It is a particularly painful disease because tumors eventually press on the lungs, kicking off the effects of pleural effusion, wherein fluid rushes to the area. Other times, people develop mesothelioma in the lining around the heart pericardial mesothelioma or the stomach (peritoneal mesothelioma). No matter the location, the prognosis of mesothelioma is the same: it will ultimately kill you.

Making Manufacturers Pay

In the last decade, mesothelioma patients and their families have sought to bring employers who knew about the danger to justice through legal action resulting in monetary settlements. Money will never restore a terminal cancer patient to health or bring back a lost loved one, but it helps pay bills and lost wages and sends the message that big business isn't above the law. The good news is that juries are listening to patients and awarding large settlements like these.A retired U.S. Steel worker from Gary, Indiana, received a $250 million payout - thought to be the largest asbestos settlement ever awarded in the United States.* A Missouri roofing worker who was employed by Shell Oil Co. received a $34.1 million settlement. * The family of an insulator who died of mesothelioma received a $12 million settlement.

* A retired Washington paper mill worker suffering from mesothelioma received a $10.2 million verdict.
* A jury awarded a 42-year-old Missouri woman's family $5.1 million after the woman, a former Aerojet worker, died of an asbestos-related cancer.