Mesothelioma - even the word sounds ugly. Mesothelioma is a rare cancer of the tissues that line the lungs and/or abdominal cavity. It is one of the few cancers that has been specifically linked with a cause - exposure to asbestos. If you are diagnosed with mesothelioma, there is better than a 90% certainty that it can be traced back to exposure to asbestos, often through your occupation.

Asbestos was used in a wide variety of industries from the late 1800s through the 1970s for an enormous variety of applications because of its remarkable versatility. Any time that asbestos is broken, ground, sanded, cut or otherwise disturbed, tiny asbestos fibers are released into the air. It is this dust that causes the problems.

Inhaled or swallowed, the microscopic fibers lodge in the lungs and in the cells of the tissues and stay there for years. The effects vary from one person to another. For some, the results are pleural thickening and scarring. For some, there's an increased sensitivity to other lung disorders and diseases - in those exposed to asbestos who smoke tobacco, the risk of getting lung cancer is increased astronomically. In some, the asbestos leads to asbestosis and mesothelioma.

The true tragedy of the asbestos story is that the companies who mined, made and used asbestos products were aware that breathing the mineral dust made people sick. Because it could be up to forty years before anyone shows symptoms of mesothelioma or other lung diseases, it was easy for them to hide the link to their products, and that's exactly what they did.

Despite the fact that British journals were publishing studies that showed the connection clearly, and despite the fact that their own consultants and researchers told them that people were dying because of the asbestos that they were breathing, the executives of these companies chose to carry on as they were doing. If they had instead followed the advice of their own consultants and provided their workers with protective gear and proper instruction on how to handle the dangerous substance, thousands of lives would have been saved.

It's that disregard for human life that is at the base of most mesothelioma lawsuits. Because the companies that manufactured the products were aware of the dangers of asbestos, the law says, they had an obligation to warn their workers and do everything within their power to protect their employees while handling it. Their failure to do those things - in some cases as simple as providing a paper mask at the cost of just a few cents a day per worker - opened them to liability for the illnesses that resulted.

That liability may include medical expenses incurred because of the exposure and illness, pain and suffering for both the plaintiff and his/her family, loss of consort for the spouses and children of affected victims, loss of income for the projected lifetime of the affected person as well as punitive damages.

There are dozens of places in the country where the incidence of mesothelioma is higher than the national average because of the concentration of industries common to their area. In tiny Rhode Island, there are dozens of cities and hundreds of sites that have been identified as exposure sites in mesothelioma lawsuits.

These sites include power plants, mills, shipyards and construction sites. Occupations that have been identified as being at risk include shipyard workers, construction workers, maintenance and custodial workers, railroad workers, mill employees who may have handled asbestos in the course of their daily tasks, auto mechanics and those who lived in the vicinity of plants and mills where asbestos was used.

If you live or lived in Rhode Island and have been diagnosed with asbestosis or mesothelioma, you may be able to bring suit against those who were responsible for knowingly exposing you to a deadly contaminant. With the assistance of a top Rhode Island mesothelioma lawyer, you can track down when and how you were exposed to asbestos, and identify the companies who are at fault and who should be held responsible for your illness.

A Rhode Island mesothelioma lawyer with experience in research and litigation can be an invaluable aid in getting you the help and compensation to which you are entitled. A top Rhode Island mesothelioma lawyer will evaluate your claim and can advise you on what steps you should take to ensure that your family is protected, and your medical expenses are covered by those who should be held responsible.