Mesophelioma is an uncommon type of cancer which has taken away the lives of many people around the world in the last decades. In the late 70s, it was recognized as a tumor of the pleura, peritoneum and pericardium. Nevertheless, it was not until the 60s when it was related to asbestos exposure. The very first time there were suspicions about the negative consequences of asbestos was in the early 1900s. At the Charing Cross Hospital in London, Dr. Hubert Montague Murray documented for the first time a report that linked the exposure to asbestos to lung diseases. He reported he had found asbestos fibers in the lungs of many dead workers.
Scientists had to wait almost 60 years to identify the connection between asbestos and lung cancer. The first report linking them was written by J.C. Wagner in 1965, when he acknowledged that coincidently 32 cases of Mesophelioma were found in workers from the "Asbestos Hills" in South Africa. Usually, this disease attacks mainly male victims surrounding their 60s, since it is directly associated with environmental and occupational exposure to asbestos, such as shipbuilding and asbestos product plants. The disease starts developing when the person breaths in the fibers of the asbestos and they travel until the small air passages where they reach the pleura. In here, the fibers cause physical damage to mesothelial cells that result in cancer. Moreover, they also cause injuries to lung cells. If the person swallows the fibers, they can reach the abdominal cavity and can cause peritoneal mesothelioma. Most Mesophelioma cases start in the chest cavity (pleural), others in the abdomen (peritoneal) and some others in the heart (pericardial), but they all manage the same level of pain.
Some of the symptoms are shortness of breath, pain in the lower back or at the side of the chest, problems to swallow, cough, fever, fatigue and sweating. In most cases, symptoms appear just two or three months before the disease is diagnosed and 20 or more years after being exposed to asbestos. Patients who suffer Mesophelioma usually must undergo a painful process of decadence in their quality of life, before reaching death. Legal processes that fight for compensation are long and expensive, and in the meantime, the treatments and medicaments to cope with the disease demand lots of time and money as well. Legal processes must be fastened and compensation amounts need to be risen. Since most victims are on their 60s, they need prompt and effective solutions from the legal body. Every citizen in the U.S must be conscious enough and try to help in every campaign made to solve this matter. Everybody will be benefit if we do so.