A Philadelphia teacher is filing a mesothelioma lawsuit against the school district where she worked for 30 years, alleging the district knew of asbestos issues, but did nothing to fix them.

Lea DiRusso, 51, told ABC television that the two buildings where she worked have years of documented asbestos problems. She said she was diagnosed in August with peritoneal mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the abdomen.

According to the American Cancer Society, asbestos fibers that are swallowed can reach the abdominal lining where they cause inflammation, scarring, and eventually, peritoneal mesothelioma cancer.

DiRusso said she had hung a clothesline from pipes in her classroom at Meredith Elementary in the Philadelphia School District for many years. She didn’t realize the pipes were wrapped in asbestos and that she was touching them and that bits of friable asbestos would fall from the friction of the clothesline. DiRusso hung her students’ art work from the clothesline to showcase their work, she said.

Local ABC network Philadelphia affiliate channel 6 spoke with Jerry Roseman, an environmental scientist that the school district and teachers’ union have asked to examine the asbestos exposure in local schools.

Roseman told channel 6, “I’m often seeing damaged, exposed and available asbestos that are in areas where there are children and staff. I kind of have a searing image in my mind of a child who has his arm around an asbestos covered pipe in a gym and he’s sucking his thumb. That’s a problem.”

Reasons to File Mesothelioma Lawsuit

DiRusso, who remarried just two years ago, is a mom of a 16-year-old son and 18-year-old daughter. She expressed to The Philadelphia Inquirer that she worries about both of them getting cancer because they both attended Meredith Elementary, the same 90-year-old facility where DiRusso spent her last several years as a teacher.

She told the Inquirer that she used to sweep and dust white dust from her desk and her classroom’s floor when she would see it accumulate, sometimes from a fallen ceiling tile. She didn’t realize she could have been sending asbestos fibers into the air, where she and her students could inhale or swallow the dangerous particles, which can instigate mesothelioma cancer.

The Philadelphia School District’s records indicate that DiRusso’s particular classroom had a documented list of deteriorating asbestos pipe insulation that went unrepaired for years, according to the Inquirer.

Even though construction workers, ship builders, pipefitters and railroad workers are known to be at a high risk of asbestos exposure, teachers are, too. According to whyy.org, one teacher’s union in the United Kingdom said that since 2001, more than 200 teachers have died from mesothelioma.

In Philadelphia, many schools used for decades are allegedly full of asbestos-laden insulation. Asbestos is not a danger until it is disturbed, and then crumbling asbestos fibers can stay airborne for days. Some of these fibers can make their way into the lungs and stomachs of teachers and students, who don’t even realize they are being exposed to anything.

DiRusso plans to file a mesothelioma lawsuit because she believes the school district should do a better job of protecting teachers and students.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health indicates there are three occupations where a majority of the workers are female, placing women at a higher risk for asbestos exposure. Office clerks, medical and health services managers, and elementary and middle school teachers are at a higher risk to develop mesothelioma than the general population.

According to the Inquirer, DiRusso’s mesothelioma has spread to her ovaries, uterus and small bowel. She plans to undergo a hysterectomy, maybe a partial bowel removal, and a course of hot chemotherapy in her abdomen in a determined attempt to add more time with her family.