Mesothelioma Lawyer California: Types of Pain and Medications Used For Mesothelioma
Workers compensation law can be extremely complicated. This is a specialized area and locating a lawyer to handle this case might be somewhat difficult as well. However, it will best to find a professional lawyer who specializes in this complicated area of law in order to get maximum benefits if you are injured on the job.
Between 1940 and 1980, asbestos was an extremely common material in American industry, used in shipbuilding, aircraft fabrication, plumbing, insulation, railroad and automotive brakes and clutches, ceiling tile, floor tile, drywall, fireproofing materials, cement, and literally hundreds of other uses. An estimated 40 per cent of the US workforce, about 27 million Americans , was exposed in their workplaces to asbestos. The large majority of those exposed have not developed mesothelioma. The number of new mesothelioma cases identified each year has stayed constant at about 3000 per year.
The relatively small number who develop mesothelioma has led researchers to ask what might be the differences, among workers who experienced the same exposure to asbestos, between the majority who did not develop mesothelioma, and those who did. Ohar and her colleagues worked from their database of 5000 people who had been exposed to asbestos, of whom 327 developed mesothelioma. They asked all of them about their asbestos exposure and their general health status. Their answers showed some very interesting patterns. Age of first exposure: those workers who developed mesothelioma tended to be younger at their first exposure to asbestos. In the 1940’s, they were the young men and women who volunteered out of high school, at age 17 or 18 to join the military, or work in defense industries. Cells in younger people tend to be more vulnerable to carcinogenic (cancer-causing) agents. Even a few years’ delay, time spent in college or in work that did not involve exposure to asbestos, seems to have had a protective effect.
Military service: Mesothelioma patients were more likely to have served in the military. Service in the military increased the odds of exposure to asbestos.
Other cancer diagnoses: Mesothelioma patients were three times more likely than other workers exposed to asbestos to have had another cancer diagnosis at the time of diagnosis of their mesothelioma. This suggests a greater vulnerability, probably genetically mediated, to carcinogenic agents. Cancer in first-order relatives: People diagnosed with mesothelioma were also three times more likely than other workers exposed to asbestos to have a first-order relative (a parent, a brother or a sister, or a child) who had a cancer diagnosis. Children of people with a mesothelioma diagnosis were seven times more likely to have a cancer diagnosis.
Breakthrough Pain- ACTIQ (Oral Transmucosal Fentanyl Citrate) is the first analgesic (pain relief) drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration specifically for breakthrough pain. It comes as a lozenge on a handle, a lollipop for pain. Fentanyl, ACTIQ’s active ingredient, is a very effective opiate, 100 times stronger than an equivalent dose of morphine. It dissolves in saliva, and is absorbed through the mucus membranes that line the mouth. Pain relief occurs within 5 to 10 minutes. People find the drug easy to use, effective, and easily tolerated. Oxycodone and hydromorphone can also be used for breakthrough pain, but neither of these are available as lozenges in the mouth absorption. As a veteran Mesothelioma Lawyer California understands the obstacles in front of a mesothelioma patient. He offers information regarding treatments for mesothelioma pain and the different kinds of mesothelioma pain at California Asbestos Law.
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