There is an asbestos scare in Lee County, Florida.

A few days ago, asbestos was discovered in some of the fill dirt being used in a construction project that involves widening Summerlin Road and building an overpass. The Summerlin Road project is in the hands of Posen Construction, a company who has already established a track record with Lee County of inappropriate use of asbestos.

Lee County Commissioner Brian Bigelow and others are concerned that the asbestos found in the fill dirt may pose a health risk not only to the workers who handled it but also to the surrounding public. This is a legitimate worry considering the well-known harmful effects of exposure to asbestos. However, the very nature of asbestos makes it difficult to tell what the risk may be since the damage that asbestos causes to the body only surfaces many years after exposure.

Asbestos exposure has been linked to several serious diseases including asbestosis, a form of lung disease, and mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer that is extremely difficult to diagnose. Because it can take up to 30 years after exposure for symptoms of the cancer to become apparent, a diagnosis of mesothelioma is usually fatal.

The main problem that Lee County is having with the discovery of this asbestos is determining the source. The county is waiting by to take legal action against Posen, but the company, of course, denies any blame. It is possible that the asbestos may have come from an old water pipe that, when incorrectly dealt with, released asbestos into the surrounding dirt. It is also possible that the dirt bought by Posen from Fort Myers landfill may have been contaminated without Posen’s knowledge.

Either way, it is important that Lee County get to the bottom of this breakout. Posen has been given 10 days to organize a clean-up, but that is not enough. It is not sufficient to simply remove the asbestos. The Lee County community deserves to know exactly what happened and the guilty party identified to make sure that the long-term health of thousands of innocent people is protected.

Mesothelioma is a form of cancer afflicting the soft tissues that surround the lungs, heart and stomach. It is very hard to diagnose and this is why it is often 20 or 30 years after asbestos exposure for symptoms to appear.

It is also entirely preventable. The best science we have tells us that those who have mesothelioma were exposed to asbestos at some time in the past. In other words, protect people from asbestos exposure and no one develops mesothelioma cancer.

Industrial concerns in the 1940-1970s knew that asbestos exposure led to harmful side effects, and even side effects that could be fatal. But, because it would cost money to change things, companies like Dow Chemical, Du Pont and Alcoa that used asbestos extensively chose to continue business as usual. Further, they avoided telling their employees that asbestos was harmful and even that they were working around it.

Even after it became well-known that asbestos could hurt — and kill — people, many of these companies continued to deny that there was anything wrong. W.R Grace in Montana gave the local high school asbestos-laced mine tailings to put on the track even though OSHA had been warnign about the dangers of the mineral for two decades. Alcoa’s plants in Texas failed to develop and implement proper safety standards until the mid-1990s, even though OSHA rules had been written in the early 1970s.

So, this is why many victims of mesothelioma feel that their employer’s greed is at fault for their terminal cancer, and why they work with experienced lawyers to file mesothelioma lawsuits against these companies.

Remember, if you have mesothelioma you were exposed to asbestos and could have grounds for a lawsuit. Contact an experienced Texas asbestos lawyer today.

Asbestos is made up of needle-like fibers that are easily inhaled when disturbed.  The inhalation of these asbestos fibers can lead to serious diseases such as mesothelioma cancer, lung cancer, asbestosis, and pleural fibrosis.

Asbestos is an organically occurring fibrous mineral.  It can be found in many places and objects.  Asbestos is heat resistant and has great strength, durability and flexibility.

Asbestos can be woven into cloth or mixed with other materials to make construction products.  It has been used in a variety of commercial, residential, automotive, and maritime applications.

Asbestos was also used in home building from the 1940s to the 1980s.  If your house was built in that time period, then it probably contains asbestos.

There are many parts of your house that may contain asbestos.  These areas include insulation, door gaskets in furnaces, wood stoves, cement sheeting, millboard and paper used as insulation around furnaces and stoves, insulation of steam pipes, boilers and furnace ducts, cement roofing, shingles and siding, patching and joint compounds, textured paints, acoustical tiles used on the ceiling or walls, spray-on soundproofing, floor tiles, vinyl sheet flooring, and floor tile backings and adhesives.

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You should be very cautious when doing any repair work on a house. Asbestos fibers are released into the air when disturbed and can then be inhaled.

If you think your house might have asbestos, then you should contact a trained and qualified contractor to remove it.  You can also have air samples tested.