Asbestos and Lung Cancer Are Old Friends

By Adam J Bradley  |   Submitted On June 18, 2010

  

Anyone can theoretically breathe in asbestos. Asbestos use and lung cancer have been associated for years. Asbestos and asbestos derivatives have been used in so many products that as consumers we use everyday. Part of an element of asbestos was once used in crayons for instance. Asbestos has also been built into many peoples homes, public schools, clothing and even used extensively in hospitals. It used to be ubiquitous, not so much anymore.

If an object is moved or agitated and it contains asbestos, microscopic spores or fibers are flung into the air. They are so light, they float. This causes humans to breathe them in not knowing what they are sucking into their bodies. Since these spores are not supposed to be in our bodies, our lungs do not know what to do with them. Our lungs do not know they are even there. The spores end up being trapped in our lungs for years on end. As time marches forward, these spores gather around and end up scarring and inflaming the lungs. This may not interfere with your breathing ability but can lead to severe health complications.

Asbestos has been officially labeled as a preeminent carcinogen. This means that this element induces cancer. Asbestos and lung cancer have been synonymous. This fact has been classified as such by the EPA, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. There has been data accumulated that supports the findings that asbestos can increase the chances of someone obtaining lung cancer. Not only lung cancer, mesothelioma is another disease that can be attained.

Mesothelioma is a pretty uncommon form of asbestos lung cancer that incorporates the thin membranes that attach themselves along the chest and abdomen. There is a strong chance you would never be a statistic with this type of cancer unless you inhaled asbestos. Mesothelioma is virtually unheard of without contact with asbestos.

Asbestos does not stop there. It can cause more than two forms of cancer. There has been data that offers an association between asbestos inhalation and colorectal and gastrointestinal cancers. Moreover, being in an atmosphere of asbestos can increase the chances of someone obtaining kidney, throat, esophagus and gallbladder cancer. But, this evidence is not perfect and there are some doubters to these accusations.

Asbestos exposure can perhaps exacerbate the chances of asbestosis. This is an inflammatory situation irritating the lungs which can lead to weakness of breath, coughing and severe lung damage. Asbestos has been known to cause nonmalignant lung and pleural disorders. Pleural plaques is another.This condition is where the membranes which encompass the lungs are damaged. Another disorder is pleural thickening. Asbestos can also ignite benign pleural effusions. This is when fluids collect between the thin layers of tissue draping the lungs and the chest cavity wall. Pleural plaques do not guarantee lung cancer but if someone is beset by this sickness there is an increased chance that lung cancer will be soon manifest itself.

The relationship between asbestos and lung cancer has been widely accepted. United States industries and manufacturing plants have moved away from using asbestos in many products. Comparatively statistics show that domestic intake of asbestos in 1973 was about 803,000 tons. By 2005, this number had dropped to 2,400 tons.

Adam Bradley is a book publisher of How-To and information books. While researching asbestos and lung cancer he was shocked by the tremendous amount of bad information, scams, and bogus agencies. He felt that having to spend countless hours sorting articles and web pages just to find help during a period when time is of the essence was absurd. To help the victims and families of those exposed to asbestos, he and his research team compiled this information and offer a free 15 part Info-Course at: Asbestos Cancer Resources.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Adam_J_Bradley/601311

Asbestos and Lung Cancer - What's the Connection?

By Robert Dale  |   Submitted On May 04, 2009

  

The connection between lung cancer and asbestos is well recognized these days. But, this wasn't always so. For a lot of years, asbestos was believed to be a mineral phenomenon. It's a first-rate insulator, and this used to be one of its main applications. Asbestos was additionally integrated into a broad variety of manufactured products.

As long ago as the last part of the nineteenth century, suspicions existed that asbestos exposure could cause serious health problems. It's believed that the parties involved in encouraging asbestos use acted to bring into disrepute this information.

Not later than 1931, the British government had decided that asbestos was probably dangerous to the body and took action to guarantee the safety of people who handled asbestos. Then the US government carried out comparable measures in the 1970s.

Regrettably, by then, thousands of individuals had their lives gravely distressed by asbestos linked lung cancer along with additional health problems. Asbestos was extensively utilized in homes, factories, and other places.

Asbestos creates problems such as lung cancer, scarring in the lungs, pleural plaques and asbestosis. Additionally, it produces an aggressive, deadly form of cancer called mesothelioma.

Not like normal lung cancer that has an effect on the tissues of the lung itself, mesothelioma involves the lining surrounding the lungs termed the pleura. This form of cancer occurs nearly only because of asbestos contact.

Even brief contact with asbestos may produce mesothelioma. Moreover, this cancer can become evident a number of decades following the asbestos exposure.

Like with the majority of lung-related cancers, smoking significantly raises the likelihood of getting mesothelioma. A number of studies point out that a smoker who has been in contact with asbestos has fifty to ninety times the odds of getting mesothelioma and additional lung cancers forms, as contrasted with a non-smoker with comparable asbestos contact. Non-smokers who have been in contact with asbestos have around five times higher probability of getting mesothelioma in contrast to individuals who weren't ever in contact with asbestos.

You ought to have frequent screenings to discover any irregularities in the lung if you were exposed to asbestos either in your place of work or somewhere else. This must be repeated since lung cancer can become evident as late as fifty years following the asbestos exposure. The best chance for survival of lung cancer is early diagnosis.

Diagnostic techniques for discovering asbestos linked lung cancers consist of examining a patient's medical history in addition to doing MRI scans, chest x-rays, tissue sampling and biopsy, and CAT scans. The expectations for folks diagnosed with mesothelioma (as well as other forms of lung cancers) is normally not hopeful. In a number of cases, the life expectancy for somebody diagnosed with mesothelioma might be as small as two to three months. Multi treatment techniques utilized in a number of clinical trials have significantly raised life expectancy. Therapy for mesothelioma frequently blends radiation, chemotherapy and surgery. Surgery could be ruled out since the cancer has been diagnosed at a late stage in many cases. There are some newer chemotherapy therapies existing that seem hopeful.

Alimta was the first drug designed specially to treat mesothelioma. It was approved by the FDA in 2004. While Alimta is given together with Cisplatin, (also a drug used to treat cancers), the findings indicated it could raise a patients' life expectancy. Intensive research is still going on to come up with a cure for these destructive asbestos associated cancers ,and the hard work could in time create a dependable cure.

To learn more about asbestos and lung cancer, try visiting http://web-health-md.com, a health topics website where you can find all kinds of health related information including cancer mesothelioma treatment, heart disease, menopause and more.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Robert_Dale/177591

Mesothelioma - Cancer that Strikes 40 Years Late

By Rick Hendershot  |   Submitted On September 01, 2005

  

Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer in which malignant (cancerous) cells are found in the mesothelium, a protective sac that covers most of the body's internal organs. Most people who develop mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos particles.

In his article called 

Knee Deep in Asbestos [http://www.mesotheliomaadvisors.com/2.html], freelance writer Phil Jones relates how when he was a teenager he worked for a brief time in an asbestos mine in the Yukon. One of the features of daily life

was the constant presence of asbestos dust in the air. As Jones writes,

There were employees that worked in the mill whose sole job was to sweep up the dust that fell on the floor. There was so much of it that this was a constant ongoing job. The asbestos dust in the mill actually fell almost like snow and covered the floor completely. Without sweepers there would probably have been several

inches of asbestos dust on the floor within an hour or so. In fact, I remember seeing sweepers go by pushing their wide brooms and the new dust settling onto the floor behind them as they walked.

This story illustrates a number of the more sinister aspects of the whole mesothelioma story.

First, over the course of many decades, countless workers were placed in work environments where they were exposed to high levels of asbestos fibre with little protection. Their exposure to asbestos fibres was constant and often took place over a very long period of time - in most cases, over many years.

Second, the owners and managers of these work places were often either unaware of the risk of mesothelioma, or they actively attempted to hide or cover up those risks.

Third, since the effects of exposure to asbestos fibre often do not become apparent for 30 or 40 years after prolonged exposure, there often appeared to be no immediate health risk in these work environments. This made it very difficult

for workers or their representatives to make a convincing case that worker health was being sacrificed on the altar of corporate profit.

For more information about mesothelioma, the causes of mesothelioma, the effects of mesothelioma, and the legal courses of action open to mesothelioma victims, visit Mesothelioma Advisors [http://www.mesotheliomaadvisors.com/].

Rick Hendershot is a writer and founder of the Linknet Publishing Network. To learn how you can benefit from original articles, and posted around the web, see our program called the Linknet Promote with Articles [http://www.sbo-linknet.com/products/article-program.shtml] Program.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Rick_Hendershot/1841