More than forty years after papers found in a closet at an asbestos company brought the link between asbestos and lung cancer to public attention, asbestos cancer victims continue to bring legal action.

Once rare, lung cancer today is the most commonly-diagnosed form of cancer. Out of 200,000 cases reported each year, approximately 2.5 percent are attributed to asbestos exposure.

According to medical studies of asbestos and lung cancer victims who have also been exposed to tobacco, the former appears to aggravate the carcinogenicity of the latter. While defendants in asbestos and lung cancer lawsuits have attempted to argue that the plaintiff’s illness was due exclusively to tobacco use, attorneys specializing in asbestos injuries have been successful in demonstrating asbestos as the primary cause.

A Forty Year Long Cover-up

Asbestos, discovered in ancient times, has been used since for making fire-resistant fabric, pottery and building materials. The dangers of the fibers were unrecognized for decades.

Physicians in Europe began to suspect a link between asbestos and lung cancer in the early years of the 20th century; by the late 1930s, that link was well established. However, when it came to the attention of the asbestos industry, several of the major companies involved – including W.R. Grace, Johns-Manville and Raybestos – engaged in a conspiracy to keep this information from the public.

The first asbestos class action lawsuit involving asbestos and lung cancer was initiated by a Texas insulation worker in 1965. After four years, the defendant settled the case for less than $1,100 per plaintiff. Another victory for injured plaintiffs came in 1974 in Borel v. Fiberboard Paper Products Corporation, when an appeals court ruled that the defendant was liable for the plaintiff’s injury. Three years later, discovery of 40-year-old correspondence in the closet of an office at Raybestos Inc. exposed the conspiracy of silence.

Asbestos and Lung Cancer: How it Happens

The term “asbestos” refers to several different, related minerals that are soft and pliable, yet offer superior tensile strength and fire resistance. There are two varieties: “soft” asbestos, also known as chrysotile, and “hard” asbestos, or amphibole. The former type was frequently used in building material. When the fibers enter the lung, chrysotile fibers irritate the inner linings, causing a condition known as “asbestosis.”

Amphibole asbestos consists of hard, needle-like fibers that literally drill through lung tissues. As they do, they create chronic inflammation that eventually causes the formation of malignant tumors. In addition to asbestos and lung cancer, these fibers can cause cancer of the visceral lining, known as mesothelioma.

Asbestos Litigation Today

Asbestos illness became one of the largest mass torts of the late 20th century, and lawsuits over asbestos and lung cancer as well as other asbestos-related diseases continue to the present day. The primary reason is that asbestos diseases have a lengthy latency period: it can be years, even decades, between initial exposure to asbestos and lung cancer onset.

Even though the use of asbestos was largely phased out beginning in the early 1980s, people including industrial workers, military veterans and even white-collar professionals continued to be exposed.

Most defendants in asbestos lawsuits today wind up offering plaintiffs a settlement. Depending on the nature of the disease and the defendants involved, recoveries for plaintiffs can range from $22,000 to $1 million or more.

Because of the scope of asbestos litigation, many defendants have set up trust funds to cover their liability; currently, there is approximately $30 billion available for victims of asbestos lung cancer and related diseases.