Asbestos

What is Asbestos?

Asbestos is a naturally occurring fibrous material concocted from six different fibrous minerals: chrysotile, crocidolite, amosite, tremolite, anthophyllite, and actinolite. Because asbestos is often mixed with another material, it’s hard to know if you’re working with it or not. But, if you work in a building built before the year 2000, it’s likely that some parts of the building will contain asbestos. Asbestos is found in many products used in buildings, including ceiling tiles, pipe insulation and boilers.

What is Asbestosis?

Asbestosis is caused by the inhalation of asbestos fibres. The disease is characterised by scarring and inflammation of the lung tissue.

Symptoms

This is a condition with no cure and can include symptoms such as:

• Shortness of breath;
• Persistent coughing; and
• Chest pain.

In order to diagnose asbestosis and investigate the disease, lung function tests, MRI scans and chest x-rays need to be conducted. Whether or not an asbestosis claim will be successful depends on the level of exposure to the asbestos dust and identifying the parties involved with the exposure of asbestos.

Employees who have been exposed to asbestos have an increased risk of lung cancer in cases where there has been significant exposure. There isn’t a way of distinguishing between lung cancer caused by smoking and lung cancer caused by asbestos so legal advice will be necessary in order to get the correct medical evidence required to back up your claim that any form of lung cancer was caused by asbestos.