Favorite Teacher story

This story is about a man who always wanted to teach. To obtain money for college, he worked as a laborer in an insulation plant. The insulation produced at this plant was derived from vermiculite, a naturally occurring mineral. While generally considered a safe material, some strains of vermiculite are contaminated with asbestos.
The vermiculite mined in Libby, Montana, contains the highly lethal type of asbestos, called tremolite. At the insulation processing plant in Spokane, where this man labored for 23 months hauling tons of vermiculite ore from the railcars to the ovens, dust was constantly in the air. This dust was filled with asbestos laden vermiculite. Although the dangers of asbestos were known at the time, no one suggested that the employees of this plant wear respirators or other devices to reduce the dust inhalation.

Many decades later, this active teacher of middle school children was well liked and was an inspiration for many kids. He felt his health was excellent and spent a lot of time outdoors bicycling and playing basketball. In 1994, 36 years after working with the asbestos contaminated mineral, he started to experience abdominal swelling and shortness of breath.
In January 1995, he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare and deadly form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. He immediately had to start a process where he spent three days a week in chemotherapy. Then, he started losing weight and was constantly vomiting. Eventually, he had to give up his teaching at the Portland schools where he'd spent 28 years inspiring his students. By September 1995 he was admitted to the hospital and was on pain relievers all day. He died in early November 1995. Many of his seventh and eighth grade students could not understand his sudden passing and could not even spell the word mesothelioma. In the end, W. R. Grace, who owned the vermiculite plant, settled a wrongful death suit with the family of this "favorite teacher." The details of the settlement were not released.
His brother was also employed by the vermiculite plant, but worked outside, not inside where the dust was heaviest. So far, his lungs appear clear, but he and the rest of his family will have an asbestos cloud hanging over their heads for the rest of their lives.

Husband & Wife Develop Mesothelioma story

This patient story relates to a sailor who was exposed to asbestos during his long voyages on a battleship during the Korean conflict and during his many years of working in the shipyards in Norfolk, Virginia. The sailor recalls the massive amounts of insulation that lined the vessels' piping and heat-producing areas. He also recalls the "cloud of asbestos" that occurred each time the massive 16-inch guns were fired. The concussion of the guns created a fine haze of asbestos from overhead insulation.

This sailor encountered this asbestos haze many times during his 21-year Navy career. He had served aboard a number of ships that were put into the Norfolk shipyards for repair. During the repair, he helped remove and replace asbestos insulation so changes or upgrades could be expeditiously made to the boilers and engines.
After retiring from the Navy, he took a job as an air conditioning and refrigeration mechanic at the shipyard. And then went on to become the superintendent of shipbuilding. All of these positions placed him in the presence of asbestos and would eventually lead to his contraction of mesothelioma.
But, the asbestos dust also accumulated in his clothing. So, every night when he returned home from working in the asbestos filled environment, the dust on his clothing would expose his wife and children to asbestos. In 1985, over 30 years after his first exposure to asbestos, he was diagnosed with mesothelioma. Part of his lung was removed and he came through the surgery well.
He had survived a scare with mesothelioma and was taking time to spend with his wife and family. Fifteen years later, long after his mesothelioma tumor had been removed and the disease seemed to be stable for him, his wife was diagnosed with this deadly cancer. Her asbestos exposure apparently occurred due to the dust in his clothing many years earlier. Within a month of diagnosis, she died of mesothelioma.

Judge William Forbes story

William Forbes was from Norfolk, Virginia. As a young man he enlisted in the Army and served in World War II. Returning to the vicinity of his home town, he went back to school, obtained his high school diploma and went to college. During his college years, he spent two summer breaks working as an apprentice in the nearby shipyards. As a rigger's helper, he worked mostly in the deep innards of ships that were under repair.

Of course, these ships were lined with massive amounts of insulation made of asbestos. It was during these summers that he decided to attend law school. It was also during these summers that his exposure to asbestos would later lead to malignant mesothelioma.
After graduating from law school and entering law practice for several years, Judge Forbes ventured into politics. He became the first city attorney for the new City of Chesapeake and, in 1975, became the area’s first judge. In 1980, he became a judge in the Circuit Court.
More than 20 years after becoming a judge, in 1997, he noticed a pain in his left shoulder that was suspected to be arthritis. He underwent treatment, but it persisted. In 1998, a thoracic surgeon noted a large lung tumor on an x-ray. Judge Forbes was given the diagnosis of mesothelioma. The judge learned that mesothelioma was a deadly disease that was related to asbestos exposure. He thought back to the days, almost 50 years earlier, when he had worked in the shipyards and was exposed to asbestos every day during his summer breaks. Late in late 1998, Judge Forbes died of mesothelioma.

Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr. Story

Admiral Zumwalt was the youngest Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) in history when he took this post in 1970 at the age of 49. He was well known for his efforts to transform the Navy from an aristocratic organization to an egalitarian institution.
During Admiral Zumwalt's tenure as CNO, asbestos-related deaths of shipyard workers escalated dramatically. According to the Sinai School of Medicine in New York, asbestos related deaths, either from asbestos or mesothelioma, grew by 47%, from approximately 1,650 to 2,420 per year. From 1970 to 1979, it is estimated that more than 20,000 tradesmen died of asbestos exposure. And many more became debilitated and were forced to stop working and take disability or early retirement.

Zumwalt himself was exposed to asbestos on many different occasions. He had served on many vessels that contained asbestos insulation. Also, he had been stationed at the Pentagon during renovation that may have stirred up asbestos dust. This would ultimately lead to him contracting mesothelioma.
In an ironic twist, Admiral Zumwalt had campaigned within the Navy to ban the use of environmentally unfriendly chemical agents and became a staunch advocate of new measures to protect the environmental safety of Navy men and women. Much of his fervor derived from his son's untimely death, from cancer, at age 42. His son commanded a river boat in a part of Vietnam where Agent Orange had been used to defoliate vegetation. Admiral Zumalt had given the command to use the defoliant while he was commander of Navy operations in Vietnam. He was convinced that his son's cancer was a result of exposure to Agent Orange.
Admiral Zumwalt had watched a virtual epidemic of mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases occur on his watch as CNO. He was taking steps to try to protect Navy personnel from future environmental hazards. His statements in the congressional record are paraphrased below.

…Every man and woman who puts on a Navy uniform faces possible injury or death in the national interest. Risk is part of their jobs, but it is the responsibility of the U.S. senators to ensure that the risk not be increased unnecessarily…

At age 78, almost 30 years after Admiral Zumwalt had assumed the position of CNO, he was diagnosed with mesothelioma. After participating in a 5 kilometer run, he experienced a shortness of breath that was unusual for him. Two months later a chest x-ray showed a larger tumor in the lung and the diagnosis of mesothelioma was confirmed. At age 79, within 6 months of visiting the doctor due to shortness of breath, Admiral Zumwalt died of complications related to mesothelioma.

source:http://www.allaboutmalignantmesothelioma.com/mesothelioma-stories-zumwalt.htm