Mesothelioma is a cancer of the mesothelium, which is the thin, protective lining around some of the bodys internal organs such as the lungs, the heart, and the abdomen. It is caused by inhaling asbestos fibers that have been released into the air. It is a relatively rare cancer with a long incubation period, meaning that symptoms can frequently take twenty years or more to manifest after asbestos exposure. The disease affects the lining of the lungs, most commonly. Every year, more than twenty to thirty thousand cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed in the United States. A good portion of those cases will occur in veterans of the U.S. armed forces primarily those who have worked on Navy ships and in Navy dockyards.

Decades ago, asbestos was used extensively in the building and repair materials of Navy ships. Navy dockyards, then, were commonly contaminated with asbestos fibers, as were the ships themselves. Unknowingly, many service men and women inhaled asbestos fibers while on duty particularly construction and repair workers in the dockyards and workers in the engine rooms of ships. For some, those inhaled asbestos fibers became lodged in their lung tissue and developed into cancer. Since the symptoms take so long to present, many times the disease is not diagnosed until it is in its late stages. In fact, some of the earliest symptoms of mesothelioma may even be misdiagnosed as something relatively benign, like asthma or allergies. By the time an accurate diagnosis is made, the disease is often quite advanced, which makes it much more difficult to treat successfully.

Baron and Budd is a premier asbestos litigation law firm engaged in all activities related to the practice of asbestos litigation, as well as other related areas such as environmental hazards, water contamination, and Chinese drywall. The law firm is well known for being a front-runner in asbestos litigation and has made many pioneering, precedent-setting advances in this space. In veteran related asbestos cases, the firm does not file suit against the United States Navy. Instead, they fight for financial compensation from the manufacturers and companies that made or supplied the asbestos-containing materials to the Navy. In fact, the firm even successfully represented the family of the formal Chief of Naval Operations, who was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 1999. To learn more about Baron and Budds practice and the services they offer to veterans exposed to asbestos, visit www.mesotheliomanews.com.