How Does a Person Get Pleural MesotheliomaAttorney Joe Williams

How does a person get pleural mesothelioma?
Hi. I'm Joe Williams. I'm a mesothelioma trial attorney in New York City. And in order to
explain to you the general ways in which mesothelioma forms in the human body, I need to talk to
you a little bit about the process of how those fibers get into the system.

So we have
here a drawing of the human respiratory system. And what we need to understand is that asbestos
fibers are teeny tiny fibers which are an individual fiber is invisible to the naked
eye. And these fibers, when we breathe in dust from a workplace (from a worker working
with an asbestos product and dust that contains asbestos is being created), that dust goes
into the worker's breathing zone. The cubic foot of air around their nose and mouth, represented
here in this drawing.

And these asbestos fibers go in through the nose, into the mouth, down
the throat. Now in our throat it's important to know that the body has natural defense
mechanisms and there's a complicated phrase: it's called the mucociliary escalator. But
all you need to know about that is that just like the hair on your nose (the cilia hair
on your nose) there's a similar mechanism in your throat which beats and tries to expel
these dust particles from the human body. But because the asbestos particles are so
small, the defeat the mucociliary escalator and go down deep, deep into the lungs.

After
they go down deep into the lungs, these fibers are indestructible. That's one of the important
uses of asbestos in the industry. It was a tremendous insulator; can't be burned, can't
be melted. It is also an indestructible fiber.

So if in a steel plant or on a naval ship,
asbestos fibers are being used because they're indestructible well I can tell you that the
human body certainly can't destroy these fibers. And they stick into the meat, the parenchyma
of the lungs and they never leave. These asbestos fibers stay in the lung tissue for the patient's
entire life and over the course of many years they migrate - it's called the process of
transmigration -- from this lung tissue into the pleura. And the pleura, we see here the
lung is encased in what's called the 'visceral pleura' which is almost adherent to the lung.
And then there's the parietal pleura which is almost to adherent to the ribcage.

And
these asbestos fibers migrate into these pleura surfaces and it's at that point -- when they
get into the pleura surfaces -- that they cause cell mutation which can eventually become
mesothelioma. Now you may have many more questions about how mesothelioma is caused by breathing
in asbestos. I'm Joe Williams and I invite you to call the number below. We'll answer
your questions.

Thank you..