What is Asbestos? Or Mesothelioma asbestos

Asbestos is the name for a group of naturally occurring silicate minerals that can be separated into fibers. The fibers are strong, durable, and resistant to heat and fire. They are also long, thin and flexible, so that they can even be woven into cloth.

Because of these qualities, asbestos has been used in thousands of consumer, industrial, maritime, automotive, scientific and building products. During the twentieth century, some 30 million tons of asbestos were used in industrial sites, homes, schools, shipyards and commercial buildings in the United States .
Although millions of Americans have been exposed to some amount of asbestos since the 1940's , there are particular fields where there is an increased risk of exposure. Particular fields where workers have increased exposure to mesothelioma causing asbestos includes: asbestos miners, shipyard workers, workers in the heating and constructions fields and the producers of other asbestos related products

Asbestos Related Diseases

Asbestos is something very dangerous and a lot of people are still unaware of that. Asbestos surveys need to be carried into buildings if it has not be done yet in order to identify if asbestos was used or not in the building.

A recent survey carried out actually indicates that the highest risk of asbestos related lung illness in fact arises from insulation work in the United Kingdom. Epidemiologic work done by a professor called Peto has shown that in the first few years of the twenty first century we can keep on expecting a rise in the number of new cases of mesothelioma in Great Britain mainly due to asbestos. Mesotheliome really is a horrible cancer with a very long latency period.

In the United Kingdom, it presently causes more deaths than road traffic accidents and epidemiologists predict that a further one hundred thousand individuals would die from one type of asbestos cancer called mesothelioma in the coming years. When all types of asbestos-related diseases are gathered, the final death toll could be even higher than that previous number which is shocking.

Research into the treatment and care of this aggressive cancer in the United Kingdom is apparently in bad shape due to a lack of government help over the last years. In 2007 there was just one project dedicated to mesothelioma research funded by Cancer Research UK, but nothing by the Medical Research Council, despite the fact that between 1995 and 2004 the incidence rate of this disease in United Kingdom grew faster than any other cancer. Improvement have been made though with the availability of support for people suffering from mesothelioma by cancer charities throughout the United Kingdom.

Any delay in diagnosing mesothelioma can impact negatively on treatment options, since an early diagnosis is a key to achieving a better cure for the patient.

With the fact that patients are now getting older and are often diagnosed at a late stage of the disease. It becomes more and more urgent to use asbestos surveyors to carry out asbestos surveys.

It seems that other countries like Australia have done things differently when it comes to deal with asbestos related diseases. The Australian government actually committed millions of pounds for a research program which would help people suffering from those diseases.

It is very easy to find a company specializing in asbestos management. They would usually also do legionella risk assessment and asbestos awareness training.

The Harmful Consequences Of Exposure to Asbestos

The Harmful Consequences Of Exposure to Asbestos
It has been said that all levels of asbestos exposure are harmful to the body. This is due to the fact that just one fiber can bring severe harm. Workers are most at risk of contracting asbesto related diseases due to poorly controlled, and often unrecognized, exposure to harmful materials in their daily labors.

Asbestos related diseases are responsible for 30 deaths per day, or 10,000 deaths per year. These diseases kill thousands more people than other types of cancers that get much more attention from the government and pharmaceutical companies. The combination of asbestos exposure and cigarette smoking is especially deadly. The Surgeon General indicates that people who smoke and were exposed to asbestos on the job are 90 times as likely to develop lung cancer as people who smoke but were never exposed to asbestos. Lung cancer, attributable to cigarette smoking (which has a similar latency period) has been well-documented, less attention has been focused on asbestos-related lung cancers.

As with the development of mesothelioma after exposure to asbestos, lung cancer symptoms appear many years after initial exposure to the hazardous mineral. Anyone who suspects they may have been exposed to asbestos and are experiencing any symptoms of lung cancer should seek the advice of a medical physician. Continued exposure can increase the amount of fibers that remain in the lung and the body may not be able to naturally expel them.The time from exposure to the onset of asbestos related diseases is quite long. It may take 25 to 40 years for a disease to be detected. The severity of the disease depends upon the duration of exposure to asbestos and the amount inhaled.

Asbestos-related diseases commonly affect people who worked for long periods of time in professions where asbestos was used, as well as their families due to secondary asbestos exposure. The proclamation urged public awareness about the prevalence of asbestos-related diseases and the dangers of asbestos exposure.

Cases of mesothelioma have occurred in spouses and children of asbestos workers whose only exposures were from the dust brought home on the clothing of family members who worked with asbestos. Approximately 1,500 cases of malignant mesothelioma are reported annually, and 80 percent of these cases are caused by asbestos exposure. The average latency and the diagnosis of malignant asbestos and the diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma is 35 to 40 years, with most deaths occurring in persons over 60 years of age.

Asbestosis and Smoking - A Synergistic Relationship

Asbestos, for nearly forty years now, has been known to cause asbestosis and the deadly lung cancer mesothelioma in individuals who have been exposed to the tiny fibers. The cancer mesothelioma is frequently found in individuals who have already suffered for years with asbestosis. The link between asbestosis, smoking, and mesothelioma has only started coming to light recently.

Asbestosis gives an individual an increased risk of developing mesothelioma. This is because they both are the result of scarring in the lungs from years of tiny asbestos fibers building up and causing irritation. Smoking is also known to be a cause, of sorts, of lung cancer. When a person has asbestosis and smoking, the odds of developing or being diagnosed with mesothelioma go up exponentially.

The theory is that because both items, smoking and asbestosis, can independently cause lung cancer, when the two are combined the chances of a catastrophe are much greater. The combination of smoking and asbestosis in a single person means that the combined, or overall, risk of developing lung cancer is far higher than the sums of their individual risks. The lung cancer that can be developed can be mesothelioma or any number of other forms of lung cancer.

A non-smoker diagnosed with asbestosis is three times more likely to develop lung cancer than a non-smoker who does not have asbestos. For comparison, a smoker without asbestosis is five and a half times more likely to develop lung cancer than an individual that does not smoke and has not been diagnosed with asbestosis. A smoker with asbestosis is fourteen times more likely to develop lung cancer than is a non-smoker who has not been diagnosed or treated for asbestosis.

Because of this, a person who has been diagnosed with asbestosis should make every effort to quit smoking completely, immediately. Smoking not only increases the chances of developing mesothelioma but will also exacerbate the symptoms of asbestosis, like breathlessness.

There are now a number of options to help an individual quit smoking. There are prescription medicines, over the counter patches and gums, and any number of items. Overall, it is just healthier to quit smoking than it is to smoke, regardless of whether a person has ever been exposed to asbestos or diagnosed with asbestosis. Any doctor will have all sorts of information to help a person quit smoking.