It wasn’t until after- way after- the horrible incidents of 9/11 here in New York and in Washington that we began to hear about Mesothelioma. However, it has been a growing problem in the US. In fact, according to a article recently published on the Mississippi Sun Herald website, nearly “3,000 Americans die from the disease each year.”

Unfortunately, for my sister-in-law, this horrible asbestos-caused cancer has been all too familiar to her family. Her ex-husband- the father of her three children- has suffered with Mesothelioma for years. He was diagnosed while working for the NYC Subway and Metro North lines, and now lives with a chronic cough and with constant shortness of breath. Symptoms of the disease can show up between 10-70 years after exposure and its symptoms can often times be mistaken for other ailments. When finally diagnosed, treatments don’t have much affect and patients can die very quickly.

So why the mention of this today? Well, for one thing, I work in a school that has recently (in the last year) undergone asbestos removal and I am wondering if my constant respiratory issues have anything to do with the fact that I have been breathing this crap in on a daily basis. For another, I wonder if there is asbestos in my apartment or in the house that I lived in while pregnant with my first child (the one that we lost at 19 weeks).