Nagasaki Heroine

America’s toxic legacy may leave behind a half-million deaths WASHINGTON, D.C. — The first sign of trouble came as Bill Rogers was mowing his lawn one morning in January 2007. “As I would go back and forth with the mower, I would run out of air,” says Rogers, 67, of Palm Bay, Fla. Rogers went to the doctor and learned that his right lung was full of fluid. Three days later he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a lethal tumor that occurs in the lining of the chest or the abdomen and is almost always associated with asbestos exposure. “I’d heard of it, but I didn’t really know what it was,” he says. “They told me it’s not a good cancer to get.” That Rogers is alive more than three years after his diagnosis is something of a miracle. To him, the source of his illness is clear: He worked on or around asbestos-containing automobile brakes, mostly at General Motors dealerships, for 44 years. He and his co-workers had used compressed-air hoses to clean out brake drums, where debris from worn as...

Mesothelioma Lawsuit After Death - Asbestos Exposure Mesothelioma is a rare and aggressive form of cancer affecting the tissue lining the lungs, stomach, heart and other vital organs caused by prolonged exposure to asbestos. Between 3800 and 4000 new cases are diagnosed in the United States each year. Life expectancy for the most common form of the disease is only 4-24 months following the onset of symptoms. Although the link between asbestos and disease has been investigated since the early 20th century, it wasn’t until 1989 that the EPA issued an Asbestos Ban and Phase Out Rule (only to see it overturned two years later.) As recently as 2008, asbestos has been found in Polk County, when the Polk County Sheriff’s Department uncovered illegal dumping of the material in Winter Haven. In St. Petersburg, a real estate developer was indicted for the illegal handling of thousands of square feet of asbestos in 2010. While the EPA has established exposure limits for asbestos, the United State...