For a long time asbestos exposure had been considered to be the problem of the "working man." It's true that millions of factory workers, construction workers, and men who worked in mines and shipyards during the first half of the twentieth century suffered heavily because of their exposure to this toxic substance.

However other unexpected sources of exposure to asbestos have caused illness and death amongst the women and children of America as well.

During the majority of the last century asbestos was used extensively in household products as well as construction materials. As a matter of fact, asbestos is still being used today in a number of the same products.

It wasn't too long ago that Americans were alarmed when they found out that substantial amounts of asbestos were being used in children's toys.

In addition, many homes of asbestos workers were contaminated when they brought their asbestos covered clothing home with them from the workplace.

In the 1970s OSHA began to regulate asbestos in the workplace. Prior to that time countless children sat in the laps of fathers who worked with asbestos. Since then many of these children have developed asbestos-related diseases.

And when it was not uncommon for women to stay at home and take care of the household many wives of asbestos workers regularly came into contact with asbestos fibers when they washed their husband's work clothes. Subsequently many of them have developed mesothelioma.

How many fathers are wracked with guilt because they unwittingly exposed their wives and children to asbestos? Although it may be extraordinarily difficult to deal with that realization, these people really had no way of knowing the dangers they were subjecting their families to. It certainly isn't their fault.

The blame should be placed squarely on the shoulders of the companies they worked for and the companies that supplied products to them.

After all, for decades the asbestos industry and the insurance companies that represented them suppressed their knowledge about the risk that they were exposing their workers to. The industry knew about asbestos-related diseases - such as cancer - since the 1930s. Yet, in the pursuit of the mighty dollar they did nothing about it.

As long ago as 1943 the Public Health Service issued a manual that stressed that employers in the asbestos industry should provide onsite laundering facilities and adequate shower facilities for their employees. That didn't happen.

How many lives could have been saved if these companies simply made onsite laundry services and showers available to their workers and encouraged their use?

The median age of a mesothelioma patient was close to seventy in 1986. About 80% of them were men.

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Association (ADAO) recently reported that the median age of people who were diagnosed with mesothelioma that contacted their organization was fifty-one. Women were nearly 50% of these cases.

Some of these people had parents who worked in the asbestos industry. Parents who unknowingly brought the dangerous fibers home with them on their work clothes.

While the ADAO report may not represent the overall gender and age of recent victims of mesothelioma in the United States it does indicate that the family members of asbestos workers who were exposed to asbestos fibers many years ago are now getting the disease.