While buildings built before 1980 were heavily laden with asbestos, even newer buildings carry a high enough asbestos risk that future health effects are probable. Most of the homes and buildings in the devastation zone were built before 1980, providing a huge release of asbestos into the lungs of the surviving victims.



Prior to 1980, asbestos was the building material of choice. Asbestos carries a high level of insulating and heat resistant characteristics which in effect were supposed to create safer, more economical buildings. The potential for the development of Mesothelioma was not enough to deter contractors, companies, and developers from its use until recently. Laws enforced the lowered use of asbestos, but asbestos has far from been eliminated in construction.

Mesothelioma becomes a potential health risk whenever disaster destroys buildings, and the victims of Katrina are certainly at a high risk for Mesothelioma and asbestos exposure related effects. The devastated areas of Louisiana and Texas are now considered hot spots for asbestos exposure and future cases of Mesothelioma.

Many of the materials used to build the houses and buildings may contain very high levels of the asbestos fibers. There are ample samplings of dangerous material still lingering around the devastated areas of Texas and Louisiana, including asbestos-cement corrugated sheet, millboard, cement flat sheet, pipeline wrap, roofing felt, vinyl-asbestos floor tile, asbestos-cement shingle, pipeline wrap, asbestos-cement pipe, and vermiculite-attic insulation.

This debris is only a fraction of the asbestos laden material that poses significant health threats to the people of the affected areas of Louisiana and Texas.

Unfortunately, with the entirely overwhelming degree of devastation coupled with the unnecessary hardships the victims of Katrina have endured, there are immediate needs that seem more pressing than asbestos exposure. While there are still families living in tents and trailers being fed in free soup kitchens there is little option for those still facing potential asbestos exposure.

The unacceptable nature of the re-victimization of the Katrina survivors can only be compounded by the asbestos risk, and Mesothelioma cases in the future are an unacceptable consequence of governmental abandonment that is synonymous with Hurricane Katrina.

Mesothelioma lawyers and doctors, who live in the aftermath of asbestos exposure through their clients, are greatly concerned about the risks of Mesothelioma as it relates to the current levels of asbestos exposure in Texas and Louisiana. The results from this level of exposure will not be evident for decades to come, as Mesothelioma carries a long period of dormancy after exposure to asbestos.

There have been numerous unforeseen consequences to the annihilation endured by Hurricane Katrina, and those who have suffered have done so dearly. Governmental clean up action is already too late, but in the interest of continuing to attempt to protect those who have had minimal exposure. The longer the asbestos remains lingering in these areas, the greater the number of people who will face Mesothelioma and other health risks.

Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath left behind ample devastation and the senselessness of asbestos exposure and the threat of Mesothelioma on top of all that is utterly ridiculous. Clean up efforts should have begun immediately. There is simply no excuse for allowing this toxic debris to linger any longer. Those who have been exposed to the asbestos laden debris will not know whether or not their health has been affected for decades.

Adding just a little more insult to injury, there are ample companies in these states which are still utilizing toxic level of asbestos in their everyday production without regard to employee well being or health. While there are a few exceptions, the vast majority of oil refining companies are marginally protecting their employees against the risks of asbestos exposure.

Mesothelioma lawyers are recommending that employees take it upon themselves to research their own company's standard practices to determine whether or not asbestos related illness are a possibility for their future. Mesothelioma is not an acceptable retirement gift, and there is no acceptable excuse for any company not following every conceivable precaution to safeguard employees from asbestos and the threat of Mesothelioma.