Ah, the good old days of education in the 1940s, 50s, 60s and 70s. The nation had dedicated teachers in its vast public school system then, mostly women, who spent their lives nurturing decades of American students. Teaching was considered a noble profession.

As it turns out, the good old days exposed some teachers to mesothelioma, a deadly cancer that has no cure. They developed it after they came into contact with asbestos where they taught. It was everywhere in schools built during those years - in the pipes, insulation, behind blackboards, lab tables and ceiling and floor tiles. Who knew then that these teaching jobs would cost some their lives.

More than 3,000 common products containing asbestos were produced before the 1980s when the federal government began to strictly regulate its use given its lethal potential. As long as asbestos is undisturbed, there is no danger. But when workers grind or cut materials that contain asbestos, or products with asbestos are damaged during accidents or renovations, its tiny fibers are released into the air. They are so small they have to be magnified 1,000 times to look as big as a human hair.     

Once they are inhaled, the fibers lodge in the lining of the lungs or the stomach and begin a deadly process that ends in mesothelioma, 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years later. It’s another reason why the disease is so cruel. Just when teachers are looking forward to retirement after years of meritorious service in the nation’s classrooms, they get sick and die, often within a year of experiencing symptoms.  

In its most usual form, mesothelioma causes cancer of the lining of the lung. It has different names depending on the part of the body that is affected - the stomach, the lungs or the heart. Teachers in elementary education, along with plumbers, pipe fitters, steam fitters, mechanical engineers and electricians have the highest mesothelioma death rates in the United States, according to a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control. Asbestos exposure was common among all these groups.

Thousands of lawsuits have been filed on behalf of these victims against companies that manufactured products with asbestos when they about its dangers but hid them from their workers and the public. Some of the company names are well known: Johns-Manville, General Electric, E.I. DuPont de Nemours, ITT Corporation, Honeywell International, Ingersoll-Rand, Uniroyal, Inc. and Viacom, Inc. Victims have won awards that have driven some of these companies into bankruptcy for putting profits before safety. The list of companies that knowingly used asbestos, putting the public in danger, is much longer.   

Because the disease goes undetected for so many years, only appearing in the last stages of this devastating illness, it is important for anyone who made products with asbestos or worked around products with asbestos 20 or more years ago, to seek information from a personal injury attorney as soon as possible. Doctors have developed some new treatments in recent years that can extend the life of a victim of mesothelioma but there is still no cure.