I really was excited to be going off to college this year; my family was giving me a going away party, I was accepted to the college I had applied to, and then we got the devastating news that my father had asbestos cancer. I’m sure that anytime a person hears the term cancer it can be very frightening and it was in my case. With all that was going on, my father remained strong, just like the time my brother became addicted to drugs and we all pulled together and helped him through it, but it was my father who gave him the information at Rehab-International.org where my brother got the help he needed. Now he’s still being strong, even though it is he himself with the health problem. My father has always been the rock of our family and it is time for us to be here for him.
I wanted to do all I could to help my father and I thought the best way I could do that was to learn all I could about asbestos cancer. I learned that the health risks that are connected with the exposure of asbestos are the result of asbestos separating into particles that are microscopic and then becoming airborne, causing individuals to swallow or inhale it. This exposure can lead to a variety of diseases that are life-threatening, such as mesothelioma, lung cancer, and asbestosis. Between the years of 1940 to 1979, more than 27 million individual that were exposed to asbestos while doing jobs in the U.S. I also learned that people, such as my father, who worked around asbestos are not the only people at risk. Previous to regulations regarding occupational safety were in place, there were usually times when workers exposed asbestos to their families by bringing home on their clothing.
