Common diseases
Asbestos exposure can cause serious diseases, including asbestos lung cancer and mesothelioma. If asbestos fibres are inhaled into the lungs, some of the fibres will be deposited in the air passages and on the cells that make up your lungs. Some fibres remain trapped in the lungs, causing severe respiratory damage.

The fibres that clear the lungs are carried away in a layer of mucus to the throat, where they are swallowed into the stomach. They may become stuck in the membranes lining the stomach or intestines, or be distributed throughout the body via the blood. Wherever the fibres are, they have the potential to promote genetic “errors” in cell division that can lead to cancer.

The most common diseases caused by asbestos exposure are:

• Malignant Mesothelioma - a rare form of cancer that affects the thin membranes lining the abdomen and chest.
• Asbestos Lung Cancer - The two most common types of lung cancer are small - cell and non - small cell cancer.
• Asbestosis - a non-malignant disease that causes scarring of the lung tissue.
• Asbestos Pleural Disease - a non-malignant disease that causes scarring of the thin membranes lining the lung and chest.

Asbestos can also cause cancer of the digestive tract, colon, larynx, oesophagus, kidney and some types of lymphoma. These asbestos diseases may be due to swallowing some of the longer asbestos fibres that are caught in the upper airways and that are carried to the throat in mucus.

Occupational exposure
For a number of years asbestos has been used in a variety of different ways by many different types of occupations. Scores of people who worked in these various occupations have contracted a range of different health problems from their asbestos exposure.

Employees from practically all trades were involved with asbestos, even those that worked in the unlikeliest of professions. Asbestos was used in a variety of different products and was largely found in shipyards, power stations, chemical plants, factories, steel works, building construction, and the telecommunications industry. Some of the occupations that commonly came in contact with asbestos include:

• Textile mills - protective clothing and glove makers came in contact with asbestos while they wove it into cloth.
• Car manufacturers - brake and clutch manufacturing, and assembly workers including car mechanics and brake repairers, used asbestos on brake linings and clutch pads.
• Building engineers - building material product manufacturers, cement plant production workers, and construction workers all worked with asbestos-related products.
• Electrical workers - including electricians, electrical linemen, and telephone linemen came in contact with asbestos insulation around electrical products.
• Shipyard workers - Coast guard personnel, dockers, merchant mariners and personnel worked and lived in areas that employed the use of asbestos.
• Demolition - crews were at risk when they destroyed buildings that used asbestos as insulation.

The uses for asbestos have been vast and include:-

• Insulation against fire, heat and sound.
• Various building products such as corrugated roofing, gutters, water and drain pipes, ceiling tiles and chimneys.
• Friction materials, such as brake and clutch linings.
• Textiles, such as ropes, fire protective clothing, fire blankets and wicks for oil lamps.

Boilermakers
A boilermaker is someone who maintains, installs and repairs boilers or other large vessels that hold either liquids or gasses. The job of a boilermaker can be difficult and dangerous, sometimes involving hours spent in damp, cramped quarters, working with potentially hazardous acetylene torches and other tools.

Many years after the first boilers were manufactured and installed in commercial buildings and residences, thousands have suffered from serious diseases, largely due to the fact that their working environment was contaminated with asbestos.

If you or a loved one has worked as a boilermaker, it is important to seek the advice of a medical doctor. Routine examinations should be performed to check for the development of a number of asbestos-related diseases.

Bricklayers
Bricklayers and stonemasons are one of the occupations recognised as being at high risk of occupational exposure to asbestos. Bricklayers build walls, floors, pathways and other structures of brick and stone, often using mortar or cement between courses of brick. Some bricklayers specialize in building furnace and fireplace walls with firebrick, a type of brick that used to contain asbestos

Even worse, asbestos fibres and dust cling to clothing, hair and skin. Those who worked with asbestos-containing products like firebrick and furnace cement often returned home covered with dust and asbestos fibres. The asbestos fibres on their clothing and bodies became airborne at home, creating a secondary exposure hazard for their families.

If you or someone you know worked as a bricklayer or have been involved in renovating or restoring old brickwork, you may have been exposed to asbestos. It is important that your doctor or medical professional be aware of your possible exposure, especially if you are experiencing chest pain, shortness of breath and chronic cough.

Carpenters
For carpenters, the greatest risk was in rough carpentry and shipbuilding, which includes any carpenter working as a framer, roofer or shipbuilder. Finishing carpenters who worked in construction were also at risk, however, finishing carpenters who worked primarily at furniture-making faced little chance of exposure.

Carpenters may have been exposed to asbestos through working with asbestos-containing products such as:

• Finishing cement, flatboard, micarta, millboard, rollboard
• Acoustical plaster or acoustic finishers
• Patching plaster or patching fibre
• Asbestos cord, felt, packing or agricultural filler
• Roofing materials such as felt, shingles and adhesives

While construction products no longer contain asbestos, there is still significant risk of asbestos exposure to carpenters who work on old buildings or ships. Individuals who work at such sites must wear protective clothing in any situation where they may be at risk of asbestos exposure. Older asbestos construction materials are particularly hazardous. As asbestos ages it becomes dry and friable, the materials crumble and break more easily, potentially releasing large quantities of asbestos fibres into the air.

If you or a loved one has worked as a carpenter, it is important to seek the advice of your GP. Routine examinations should be performed to check for the development of a number of asbestos-related diseases.

Dry Wall Installers
Drywall installers usually work side by side with other contract workers. They may have been in the vicinity while sheetrock was being cut, sanded and fit to the walls, increasing the possibility of their exposure to asbestos dust. Any activity that involves sanding and cutting products that contain asbestos can result in the release of asbestos dust into the air where it can be inhaled or swallowed.

Asbestos exposure has been linked to mesothelioma along with lung cancer, asbestosis and a number of other illnesses.

Among the asbestos products that might have posed an asbestos exposure risk to drywall tapers are:

• Sheetrock
• Gypsum board
• Drywall
• Asbestos plaster
• Taping compound
• Drywall tape

If you have been exposed to asbestos and later developed an asbestos-related disease, you may be entitled to compensation for your injury and illness. Call our friendly staff on 0800 118 5855 for free advice.

Electricians
Today, when the use of asbestos has been halted, it is not unusual for electrical linesmen to suffer from asbestos exposure. This is because the homes and businesses where they work often contain asbestos building materials and their work positions them in close proximity to the ageing materials.

To reduce the risks, electrical linesmen should wear disposable overalls when working in areas where asbestos is likely to be located. When removing or working around older materials, the electrical worker should also wear a respirator or filter face mask.

If you or a loved one have been diagnosed with mesothelioma or any other illness related to asbestos exposure, you may have options to claim for compensation. For more information, please contact our friendly staff on 0800 118 5855.

Labourers
As labourers moulded asbestos with their hands to fill crawl spaces, or wrapped it around pipes or boilers, or had it fall into their face while working on brakes under a car, the floating dust was probably considered just a bother. It was also aggravating to homemakers would had to shake work clothes before laundering. Little did anyone know that the microscopic fibres, once inhaled and swallowed, could be fatal. However, although its carcinogenic effects were suspected in the first half of the 20th century, they weren't known to the public until the 1970s

Once the microscopic asbestos fibres have become embedded in the body's internal tissues, they are unable to make their way out and are trapped for decades. After having asbestos fibres in their bodies for years, eventually the patient becomes a victim of disease. It could be in the form of asbestosis (which is non-malignant but still fatal), lung cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, colon, liver or oesophageal cancer, or the cancer mesothelioma. Rarely have these asbestos cancers been caught in time with surgery. Usually by the time the victim is aware that something is wrong, the cancer has already spread.

One of the only ways to slow it is through chemotherapy and radiation. A labourer who has worked around asbestos in any capacity during the last 40 years should be aware of changes in their physical condition. Unexplained shortness of breath, chest or stomach pains, or other unusual respiratory or digestive or gastric symptoms should be checked immediately, and the same for family members.

Pipe Laggers
The lagger's duties insist that insulation materials be fitted to ducts, pipes, generators or processing vats. As such, laggers are also expected to pack insulation into wall openings or casings and install prefabricated insulation sheets, and they work wherever hot water, steam pipe, boilers and other such equipment are located.

All of these situations involved the handling of asbestos to some degree, since it was considered the best insulation available. Naturally mined throughout the world, it was widely available and inexpensive, so it served in thousands of applications. The majority of its uses were employed where protection from heat or fire was needed, so thousands of laggers made their livelihood by handling asbestos daily, thereby coming into immediate and close contact with what was unknown to be a carcinogenic substance

When asbestos fibres are released into the atmosphere, they travel far distances and survive for quite awhile. At some point, they can become inhaled or swallowed by an unsuspecting victim, who will probably not notice the microscopic fibres or tiny bits of asbestos dust. Once inside the victim's lungs or stomach, the fibres usually become embedded, and thus can remain there for decades.

The body's reaction to these foreign bodies eventually results in some form of disease, either non-malignant asbestosis or lung, colon, liver, oesophageal or gastrointestinal cancer, or mesothelioma. Countless of individuals had, or will have, their lives shortened due to malignant mesothelioma, which is predominately caused by asbestos exposure. All cancers have the potential to spread, and usually by the time the patient notices significant health problems such as loss of breath, fatigue or pain, it can be too late to remove the tumour by means of surgery. However, radiation, chemotherapy and specialized drugs may slow the progression of these diseases.

If you or a loved one has worked as a lagger, it is important to seek the advice of your GP. Routine examinations should be performed to check for the development of a number of asbestos-related diseases.

Plasterers
Even though most uses of asbestos were discontinued after the public learned of the hazards associated with the mineral, some groups of workers are still at risk of asbestos exposure, simply because asbestos use was so widespread in the 20th century. The risk is greater if workers are unaware of the risk, as they are less likely to take precautions to prevent exposure.

Plasterers may also have encountered asbestos in cement boards, insulation, caulk, fillers and adhesives, and other such materials they might come into close contact with during their work day. Even if a plasterer didn't use asbestos-containing plaster, they may still have been exposed to asbestos if the ceiling or walls they were plastering contained asbestos.

If you or a family member has been working with Asbestos or is suffering from severe chest pains, chronic coughing or shortness of breath contact your GP for immediate advice. If you’re not sure on what to do next, call our friendly staff on 0800 118 5855 for free impartial advice.

Plumbers
Plumbers install and repair the water, waste disposal, drainage, and gas systems in homes and in commercial and industrial buildings. Pipefitters install and repair pipe systems that are used in manufacturing, in the generation of electricity, and in heating and cooling buildings.
Plumbers and pipefitters are often exposed to asbestos - cement pipes used for water and sewer lines, drainage, and ventilation.

Asbestos insulation has been used around pipes, and asbestos mud was used to fill in cracks and elbows on pipes. Also, they may have removed deteriorated asbestos pipe covering; replacing it with new pipe covering.

If you or a loved one has worked as a plumber, it is important to seek the advice of your GP. Routine examinations should be performed to check for the development of a number of asbestos-related diseases.

Rail Workers
Most often asbestos was used as an insulator. It was wrapped around pipes and looks like thick white tape. There were also several other products it was commonly added to, such as wallboard, roofing shingles and tar, cement blocks and mortar, and ceiling and floor tiles. It's important to know that asbestos isn't dangerous until the fibres become airborne.

Many railroad companies used steam engines even into the 1960s. Asbestos was used in steam engine locomotives. It could be found both inside and outside the boiler, inside the walls of the metal outer shelf and in the cab. It was common that the vibrations caused by the wheels running over the tracks would shake the asbestos lose and it would float through the air. The engineers running the machine spent all day breathing the in the dust.

A potential result of asbestos exposure is developing mesothelioma cancer. The fibres are a carcinogen that affects the lining inside the abdomen and a few other places in the body. In general, it's called the mesothelium. In the chest it's called the pleura, in the stomach it's known as the peritoneum and the sac that covers the heart is called the pericardium. All of these can be affected by asbestos.

If you have been exposed to asbestos and later developed an asbestos-related disease, you may be entitled to compensation for your injury and illness. Call our friendly staff on 0800 118 5855 for free advice.

Sheet Metal Workers
Sheet metal workers install and maintain ducts used for ventilating, air conditioning, and heating systems. They also are involved with roofing, siding, gutters, and down spouts. In their work, they may have been exposed to asbestos insulation or asbestos - containing tiles used in roofing. In many Cities, for example, many sheet metal workers used Zonolite, an insulating material made from asbestos - contaminated vermiculite ore.

If you or a loved one have been diagnosed with mesothelioma or any other illness related to asbestos exposure, you may have options to claim for compensation. For more information, please contact our friendly staff on 0800 118 5855.