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Editor: M. Brandon Smith
Profession: Attorney at Law

Category: Asbestos and Mesothelioma

For anyone that has not fully experienced the effects of asbestos or seen the devastating effects mesothelioma can have on a family it might be difficult for them to understand why so many juries decide to give such large awards in jury trials around the United States and the world abroad. The simple reason is, more times than not, that a company or manufacturer knowingly decided it was more important to save company funds by using asbestos containing products rather than other safer products which would not have exposed its employees to the caner causing materials. In essence, the companies and/or manufacturers actively chose to put profits over people. The large awards given in cases where such actions and decisions have taken place is societies way of saying these entities should not have put profits over people.

To better unerstand the devastating effects these profit driven decisions can have you have to look no further than Rick Erickson's story who grew up in Libby, Montana.

According to Dallasnews.com:

When Rick Erickson looks into the future, he sees his own death. And while no death is easy, the one that awaits this former mine worker is horrifying. The asbestos that already contaminates his lungs will continue to scar them, causing a slow suffocation that will take years to run its course.

"When W.R. Grace did this to the community, it basically sentenced us to death," Mr. Erickson said of the chemical giant, which mined asbestos-contaminated vermiculite on a mountain above the town for 27 years.
"I can picture my son going through that [kind of death]. I can picture myself going through that. It becomes really overwhelming to look into the future," he said.

Mr. Erickson's tragic story is one that asbestos attorneys and mesothelioma attorneys like myself see and hear on a regular basis. It by no means makes it any less acceptable, but instead shows a continued and deliberate array of decisions that has unnecessarily caused thousands of deadly consequences and lives.