With the proximity to the United States Gulf of Mexico, Texas is known as the home to a large number of shipyards and oil refineries, including the US’s largest refinery, which is ExxonMobil. Due to these operations requiring constant and intense heat, companies have used asbestos for decades in order to line their equipment and pipes as well as necessitated workers to put on asbestos-loaded protective clothing. As a result, thousands of people in Texas have been exposed extensively to asbestos, which puts them at risk of developing mesothelioma cancer and some other asbestos-related diseases.
At the same time, even more and more residents have been exposed to asbestos merely because of where they live. People that live near locations along the W.R Grace vermiculite min truck route are found to be exposed until 1992, when the company decided to stop shipping thousands of tons of asbestos to twenty four locations throughout the state. Because of that, the scores of people in these particular areas and along the truck routes have suffered from mesothelioma, a particular cancer which affects lung functions.
When asbestos breaks, it will release microscopic fibers which become lodged in human’s body. Over the time, they will pile up, mutate, and even develop cancerous cells and tumors. This is indeed serious issue for Texas residents. Between the early of 1990 and the end of 2008 alone, more than 1,600 Texas residents died due to the conditions related to asbestos, which gives Texas the fourth highest rates of death due to asbestos in the United States. Considering who are at risk of this dangerous disease, most doctors claim that Texas oil workers are at the highest risk, while the residents of Texas, particularly those living near asbestos mines, are at risk for developing mesothelioma. Typically, oil workers, especially those working at the ExxonMobil refinery were strongly subjected to inappropriate ventilated working environments and were obliged to work with asbestos directly in as much as the materials’ fire-and-heat-resistant characteristics. Asbestos has been used in clothing, pipes, and boilers, just to enlist a few.
In addition, workers working in the more than a number of ports and shipyards that dot the Gulf Coast encounter serious risks. People that work in the Barbours Cut Container Terminal in the Houston area have been extensively exposed to substance, as have people that work in the businesses which operate in and also around the Port of Houston. Workers at the Port of Galveston and the Galveston wharves have been widely exposed as well, and most of them have already filed suit as a corollary. In the forthcoming months, even more workers and local residents are required to take measure dealing with asbestos claims due to the destruction which is left by Hurricane like what happened in 2008. Because of that, the residents of Houston and workers there are among those who are with the highest risk of developing an asbestos-related condition in the state of Texas. Residents in San Antonio and Dallas also have similar risks.
Texas Asbestos Procedures and Regulations
In order to prevent more people from getting inured, the state government has enacted a number of regulations, which are the part of Texas Asbestos Health Protection Rules. Initially approved in 1992 to bring down the possibility of exposure to asbestos, the laws state that citizens that remove asbestos have to be licensed or registered appropriately, including carpenters, plumbers, and electricians. These individuals have to wear specific protective clothing when removing asbestos
Medical Criteria for Asbestos-triggered Mesothelioma
Texas residents that develop mesothelioma may want to sue for some damages, yet they have to meet certain medical criteria in order to do so. For instance, State Bill 15 separates the claims made by those that have been proven impaired by their condition from those that have not, consequently allowing the injured ones to sue. However, it does allow unimpaired people that later get sick to sue.
How to File Mesothelioma Lawsuits in Texas
Between 1998 and 200 along, Texas led the whole nation in the number of lawsuits pertinent to asbestos as the result of the high levels of exposure. In order to help unclog the legal system, state legislators developed narrow restrictions for people that want to sue. In addition to setting limit of lawsuits to those that are impaired as a result of their exposure, the state allows claimants only two years to file a suit, which is termed a statute of limitations. The clock starts when a patient achieves an official diagnosis. Claimants are required also to agree to be a part of a multiclaim suit. Non-residents are not legible to filing suit. Rules for oil workers are varied slightly.
How to Choose the Best Texas Mesothelioma Lawyer
Mesothelioma cancer denotes a very much dangerous form of cancer which needs the best health care and so the need for patent to look for the best legal services which are available to assist in securing the best settlement for the treatment of the very disease. If you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, it will be interesting to know that you are entitled to substantial amount of compensation to cover for your health treatments and needs.
In choosing Texas mesothelioma lawyer a patient, you need to be careful in selecting the one who specializes in this very area and not merely a general lawyer as mesothelioma legal services will entail you get a lawyer who has a lot of understanding of the cancer, its history, the best plans for compensation, which may even cover your family members since they are also potential patients of the disease through their proximal interaction and relationship with you. The best lawyers to deal with mesothelioma specialize in a narrow niches of injury law and are more knowledgeable in the case of asbestos related lawsuits. You will have to understand the complexity of this area and be very much aware of the fact that your lawyer or attorney will have to possess the adept knowledge about the asbestos milieu, the best and the newest form of treatment of the disease, and the appropriate investigation to run so as to decide on the level of injury.
