Benzene is a common and sometimes naturally occurring chemical that can cause deadly cancers. You may be compensated for your injuries if you were exposed to benzene and developed a cancer linked to it.
Benzene is a colorless or light-yellow liquid at room temperature. It smells sweet and is highly flammable, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Benzene evaporates quickly into the air and will dissolve very little with water. It will instead float on top.
Benzene is formed naturally and can be created through an artificial process. It’s emitted from forest fires and volcanoes. It’s also a naturally occurring part of gasoline, crude oil, and cigarette smoke.
Benzene ranks in the top 20 chemicals for US production volume. It’s used to make products such as resins, nylon, plastics, synthetic fibers, rubber, lubricants, dyes, pesticides, drugs, and detergents.
You can be exposed at work or during your personal life:
Long-term exposure can cause serious health problems:
Benzene’s threat to health has been known since the 1920s, so many of the medical problems it causes are well-documented.
Each person’s leukemia, how it impacts them, and how it responds to treatment are unique to that individual.
While anemia may develop fairly quickly after benzene exposure, it may take years before you develop leukemia. It’s believed that as your body breaks down benzene, it results in the release of toxic substances that change your cells’ DNA, resulting in malignant cell mutations.
Leukemia doesn’t result in solid tumors. It causes immature white blood cells (part of your immune system) to rapidly divide, flooding your bone marrow with useless cells. They crowd out normal ones and gradually degrade your health until you suffer severe consequences. There are many types and sub-types of the disease, which may progress quickly or slowly.
A side effect of leukemia is the production of fewer red blood cells (which carry oxygen throughout the body), white blood cells (which fight infections), and platelets (which help stop bleeding). As a result:
Leukemia can be treated in many ways. Usually, one approach is taken, and if it’s ineffective or loses effectiveness over time, another type of treatment is tried. Depending on many factors, treatment may be planned so you would eventually have an allogeneic stem cell transplant (see below).
According to the Cleveland Clinic, treatments include:
Benzene exposure is associated with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS, a type of cancer where blood-forming bone marrow cells become abnormal, causing low numbers of one or more blood cell types). Often MDS later develops into AML.
In addition to leukemia, benzene may cause other cancers including, Non-Hodgkin’s B-cell or follicular lymphoma, multiple myeloma (another bone marrow-related cancer), and cancers of the kidney, bladder, liver, and sinuses.
If you have questions about your rights to compensation because benzene exposure may have caused your cancer or a fatal malignancy in a close family member, the skilled product liability attorneys at Schechter, Shaffer & Harris, LLP are here for you. Contact us to schedule a free consultation with a lawyer from our defective product law firm.
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