I know of no link between asbestos and lymphoma. Asbestos exposure is usually the cause of mesotheloma, a rare form of lung cancer. This type of cancer takes about 25 years to manifest.

One of the hospitals I work for is very close to the Port of Los Angeles and there are many longshoremen who live in the community. We recently had a case in which an elderly woman who had been a homemaker her entire life was diagnosed mesotheloma.

We learned that both her husband and son were longshoremen and both had died from the disease. This woman’s exposure was the same as your mother’s, washing their clothes, riding in the same car, etc. So to answer your question, yes there is such a thing as second hand exposure.

Emphysema or COPD possibly but I do no think lymphoma. I had lymphoma in high school