Although I have known for many years of the dangers of asbestos, and even the likelihood that it might strike my family, nonetheless when the email came tonight, it hit me like a ton of bricks.
You see, my dad, who is 87 years old, is still on the treadmill every morning, does much of his own gardening and snow clearing, and is generally a pretty independent minded kind of a guy.
But tonight he very matter-of-factly emailed me
To day, by email, I was told that the results of yesterdays xrays and cat scans was that I have Asbestosis
I didn't even know he had gone to the doctor.
But it seems he's been having a dry cough, which apparently bothered him enough that he had gone to get it checked out.
This is a man who was in the US Navy during WWII. When he left the service at the end of the war, however, he continued for the next 25 years to be involved in ship building and repair for the Navy.
I had been acutely aware of the asbestos peril for people who had that lengthy exposure in the military context. Not that long ago I was called to jury duty in a case involving an asbestos-related death. I told the lawyers that I had a very negative view of asbestos and companies that promoted its use, especially since I knew that they knew the dangers for years and hid them from the American public.
I told the lawyers in that case I was called on that I wasn't sure that my mother's fatal cancer wasn't related to the fact that she laundered my dad's coveralls regularly. The coveralls he wore inside ships being repaired or built, ships just full of asbestos in those days.
I told them I wasn't sure that my sister or I wouldn't get asbestosis or mesothelioma from those coveralls coming in the house week after week, year after year. Not to mention other sources-- like the potholder I had myself at one time. Or the other cooking mitts and pads everybody used to have. I even read a recipe in an old edition of the Joy of Cooking which recommended using as asbestos pad while preparing some kind of food.
I don't know where all this is going to take us. My father wants to know who to sue, and what lawyers are most knowledgeable about the subject. I'll be looking into all of that for him.
For now, though, I am turning over in my mind what the next year or two might be like for my dad, for all of us, as we confront this thing that has been there, in the shadows, for over 60 years.
Here's more from NIH: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/...