Mesothelioma Asbestos

Asbestos Causes Mesothelioma Cancer!

When speaking and learning about malignant pleural mesothelioma the subject of asbestos inevitably comes into play. Many are probably wondering what is asbestos and what does it have to do with cancer?

Asbestos is defined as a man-made widely produced group of silicate fibers that have a length to width ratio greater than 3. Millions of people in America alone (whether they know it or not) have been exposed to asbestos in the past few decades.

Asbestos are used in building houses, textile industries, construction sites, and shipyards to name a few. They are a common element found in the insulation of many houses and buildings including some 10,000 public schools. Thousands of people have been exposed to asbestos without even knowing it. The variety of people coming into contact with the fibers can range from a kindergarten student to a mine worker to a housewife. Families of industrial workers are also heavily exposed by the dust brought home on the body and clothing of the worker.

Although not used as widespread today as in the 60’s and 70’s, asbestos fibers are commonly found in homes and buildings everywhere. While this may seem harmless to many people, the fact is that asbestos have been found to cause cancers such as malignant pleural mesothelioma.

When a person breathes the tiny asbestos fibers, they penetrate the lung cavity and become lodged in the pleural lining that protects the lung. There the fibers wreak havoc in the lung creating tumors and impairing the vital function of the lungs. The tumors then enlarge and spread throughout the body to surrounding organs such as the heart and stomach, disabling their function as well. In a matter of a few months an isolated tumor destroys the body and causes the death of the patient within 2 years.

The threshold of asbestos exposure has been found to be as little as one single instance, indicating there is no relationship between the number of exposures and the likeliness of contraction. Although a 50 year- old asbestos worker has a much higher chance of contraction that a 5 year- old child would. In general there is a 20-30 year window between exposure and diagnosis. Meaning, a person exposed to asbestos in the 1970’s would not discover they had the cancer until the late 1990’s or so.

As society caught on to the hazards of asbestos, regulations were placed to halt their production. The U.S government adopted the Clean Air Act of 1970 which regulated the emission of asbestos and set a national standard for companies to go by. While legislation has greatly reduced the number of people who would potentially contract asbestos related diseases such as malignant pleural mesothelioma, the amount of those already carrying the disease is yet to be determined.