Navy asbestos use was heavy during the Vietnam War. Manufacturers continued to make and distribute the toxic substance despite warnings by doctors and scientists. As early as the 1800s, physicians were beginning to connect mesothelioma with asbestos use and advised manufacturers to discontinue its use. But because the product was so incredibly cheap and had not been banned by the federal government, its widespread use continued up until the 1980s. The public unknowingly used the fire retarding and insulating mineral without proper caution on how it would affect their health in the future. Veteran and civilian lives alike are utterly destroyed by the cancer called mesothelioma, which affects the tissue that separates the vital organs from the diaphragm.
The mesothelium protects organs like the heart and lungs from the rest of the body. When cancer is contracted in this tissue it can easily affect other vital organs. Like any cancer, when a tumor develops, it grows out of control and is extremely difficult to eliminate. Mesothelioma is considered one of the deadliest forms of cancer. What makes Mesothelioma particularly dangerous is that it can remain latent in the body for decades before symptoms develop. This latency can even last up to fifty years before the condition is discovered. Veterans who are now in their sixties and seventies are only now being diagnosed with the disease, even though they were first exposed to asbestos aboard ship or in dusty Navy shipyards decades ago. A mesothelioma cancer attorney can help those who suffer from prolonged asbestos exposure get the compensation they deserve.
