A lawsuit against tobacco companies and an auto parts company alleges a man died as a result of dual lung cancer causes.

Plaintiff Joanna S. was married to Louis S., who filed the lawsuit a few months before he died and had his deposition videotaped. Louis died at age 73 in 2015.

Louis allegedly started smoking cigarettes when he was a teenager in the 1950s. He said didn’t like the taste, but found a brand that contained menthol was more tolerable. Menthol is responsible for the cooling sensation in Kool cigarettes that were made by Brown & Williamson, which eventually merged with R.J. Reynolds. Louis also allegedly smoked Marlboro Menthols made by Philip Morris.

The tobacco companies allegedly knew back then that cigarette smoking was among the most common lung cancer causes, but kept the information from the public, according to the lung cancer lawsuit.

Despite finding it increasingly difficult to stop smoking, Louis allegedly stopped in 2009.

According to the American Cancer Society, smoking is responsible for 80 percent of lung cancer deaths in the United States. Smoking damages the airways and the small air sacs inside the lungs, compromising lung function more and more each time the person smokes.

Smoking is a large variable among lung cancer causes because the longer a person smokes and the more packs per day a person smokes, the higher the risk of lung cancer. Every year, more than 480,000 Americans die from tobacco-related illnesses, which is equivalent to one out of every five deaths.

Lung Cancer Causes Include Asbestos

Cigarettes were not the only substances that allegedly wreaked havoc on Louis’s lungs, however. Joanna says Louis worked as an auto mechanic for 25 years. During that time, he allegedly removed, prepared and installed asbestos-based brake linings manufactured by Hampden Automotive Corp.

Brake linings were made of asbestos because the material provided resistance to heat, was easily available and was inexpensive. Hampden alleges Louis used their brand of products for only three or four of those years.

Attorneys for Louis’s widow say that Louis developed cancer because of the synergy between the lung cancer causes. Both cigarette smoking and asbestos exposure are known causes of cancer.

According to the American Cancer Society, “In workers exposed to asbestos who also smoke, the lung cancer risk is even greater than adding the risks from these exposures separately.”

There is no safe level of asbestos exposure, nor is there a safe type of asbestos. The more a person is exposed to asbestos, the greater the risk of developing lung cancer. Because asbestos fibers are so small and become embedded deep in the lung tissue, they cause inflammation and cellular changes over time. Many cases of asbestos-based lung cancer occur 15 years or more after exposure to the carcinogen.

The Lung Cancer Causes Lawsuit is Case No. 1581-cv-05255, in the Middlesex County Superior Court of Massachusetts.