It never gets easier. Every year, I make my way to the annual conference of the Foundation Mesothelioma Applied Research, and every year I remember why I do what I do.
Every year, for three days the mesothelioma community together in Washington DC to exchange medical and scientific updates, network with other allies in the fight to cure meso and visit The Hill to ask our congressmen and women to allocate funds for research into mesothelioma.
Friday night, they have a tribute ceremony with a large display of names on a tribute wall. Our company has many names on that wall. Personally, I have represented many names on that wall. Too much.
So why this annual pilgrimage relate to being a trial lawyer? Because we all play a role in this small but special community, and I know my role well. My job is to fight for the rights of individuals and families who have been injured through no fault of their own. That is my contribution. And nothing inspires me to continue to fight for them to have a good hard look at that wall.
When you stand in a room with 300 people who have lost a loved one to mesothelioma, it puts things in perspective. Like how academia and the general public mesothelioma scored an "orphan" cancers. When you consider we separately - doctors, victims and anti-stereotypes lawyers - maybe we are orphans, in a sense. Overall, however, nothing could be further from the truth. We are united by this disease, and it feels very present and too personal.
The hardest part of this tribute ceremony is that the wall should not exist. Mesothelioma, which is caused by exposure to asbestos, is an epidemic of man made. Asbestos, ironically called the "miracle mineral" has been widely used since the 1930s in the 1970s in manufacturing, shipping and construction costs. According to the most recent data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 04, about 2,700 Americans die each year from mesothelioma, and experts expect that number to continue to increase until 2025.
the companies that made asbestos knew the dangers but ignored. Instead they choose to redeem their employees and the lives of their families to a bottom line. Because it takes 10 to 50 years from the time of exposure to develop a meso diagnostic ramifications of exposure to asbestos remain hidden until it is too late. Meanwhile, the general public still does not know that the products used in 2010 - as some automotive parts, some building materials and pipe insulation - still contain asbestos
A fact Certainly .. the dangers of asbestos exposure were known as long ago as the 1930s, and we is not yet a total ban, and we do not really have enough support for research .
The Meso Foundation, which celebrates its 10 years anniversary this year, offers a gathering place for those who have been affected by mesothelioma. Those who have been diagnosed, the families who lost loved ones, lawyers who do not tolerate injustice, and physicians who are passionate about the conquest of that medical experts consider the most aggressive cancer of all cancers .
MARF has helped raise public awareness of these companies and the dangers of exposure to asbestos. In addition, they assigned 67 grants peer over $ 6.4 million. These subsidies have resulted in 32 scientific publications credits, including the most prestigious medical journal in the world, The New England Journal of Medicine.
Nobody has done more to keep the names of the people out of the wall that MARF, and we at Simmons Hanly Conroy are proud to be their best advocate. We congratulate them for all the work they have done over the years to support the meso community.
