What Is The Latest Mesothelioma Disease Information?

One of the most aggressive cancers of the last century is also the one least known about in the public eye. Mesothelioma disease information was the least talked about, especially when it came to public news about dangers of asbestos. Strides towards ending this cancer were accomplished when the substance that causes it, asbestos, was removed, by law, from many of the same places that workers were exposed to it, like factories and shipyards, and its use in construction became outlawed. It was not until a number of workers in the mines where it was cultivated came down with the cancer than more information was finally released to the public.

What Is Mesothelioma?

Now that the world has learned more Mesothelioma disease information, some basic facts have become known about this very aggressive form of cancer. It is chiefly caused by exposure to asbestos, a naturally occurring mineral mined throughout the Southwest, and the victims most likely to develop it were construction workers, miners, and industrial workers that created the insulation used in construction and other industries.

Mesothelioma disease information also revealed that this cancer is primarily found in the lining of the lungs, heart and abdomen. Pleural Mesothelioma, where the asbestos fibers have lodged themselves within the very liner that allows the lungs their free movement during breathing, is the most common. Pericardial Mesothelioma is more rare, when asbestos fibers have found their way into the pericardium, the membrane around the heart. Peritoneal Mesothelioma, is also rare, and occurs when the asbestos finds its way to the stomach lining.

Symptoms And Treatment

The symptoms associated with Pleural Mesothelioma, the most common form according to Mesothelioma disease information, begins with shortness of breath, an extraordinary buildup of fluid within the lungs, and chronic hoarseness. By the time this cancer is diagnosed, the victim is also experiencing chronic coughing, with blood, muscle weakness and chest pain. Final stages include sensory loss, paralysis and swelling in the face and arms. All too often companies claimed that their workers were affected by it because they also smoked, causing the fibers to be inhaled in that manner, and ineligible for compensation through attorneys and law firms.

The treatment options available for this common form, according to Mesothelioma disease information, will require several surgeries to complete. The first surgery often performed by doctors at clinics and treatment centers is a pleurectomy decortication, removing part of the lung lining in order to remove any tumors. If the tumors continue to appear, a second surgery, a extrapleural pneumonectomy, removing up to one lung, in order to get all of the tumors out of the body.

Laws And Litigation

According to Mesothelioma disease information, because the symptoms are so similar to a host of other diseases, the fact that it is cancer is often found too late for effective treatment. This has led to many lawsuits filed by lawyers against the companies responsible, and to many states creating laws to limit litigation and compensation as a result.

Asbestos Exposure Linked To Heart Disease

The results of a study of nearly 99,000 men and women working in occupations involving asbestos suggests exposure to the deadly material has also strong links to an increased risk of heart disease.

Throughout the course of the twentieth century, increasing asbestos awareness to the fatal health risks, which has left a continuing legacy of asbestosis diseases and the fatal, incurable mesothelioma cancer, are established and well-documented.

Research conducted in the UK by the Health and Safety Laboratory looked at predominantly male workers employed in asbestos disposal and female workers exposed to asbestos in manufacturing industries between 1971 and 2005.

It's not often realised that the widespread use of blue and brown asbestos was not banned in the UK until the mid 1980s leaving white asbestos fibres to be continued to be used in the production of inexpensive insulation for many different industries such as construction, ship building, engineering and automotive. An import ban was introduced in 1999 and a total ban on asbestos use was not actually enforced until 2005.

It is well-known that there can be an exceptionally long gestation period of 15 to 50 years from the first asbestos exposure and the inhalation of fibres until the appearance of asbestosis symptoms. The fibres embed in the linings of the lungs causing inflammation and according to the study findings, researchers suggest "...there is evidence that inflammatory processes are involved in the development of cardiovascular disease."

It was further revealed that the risk of heart disease was even more dangerous for women than for men exposed to asbestos when compared with the general population. The probability of dying from a stroke was 63 per cent in males compared to 100 per cent in females who are also more likely to die from heart disease by 89 per cent contrasting with 63 per cent for males.

Over the entire research period, there were 15,557 deaths analysed from all causes in the study group of workers and it was also concluded that "occupational exposure to asbestos was associated with cardiovascular disease mortality".

Currently, most common mesothelioma cancers are pleural ( lungs) followed by peritoneal ( stomach) and the rarer pericardial (heart) and testicular form. In recent years, however, an increasing number of medical research professionals have also begun linking asbestos exposure to a wider variety of cancers, including colon, kidney, and gastrointestinal.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) claim more than 1.8 million people in the UK are annually exposed to asbestos with at least 2,000 cases of mesothelioma diagnosed every year. In 2008, death from mesothelioma reached 2,249, a rise of three per cent on 2007. It is forecast that 5,000 people will die from asbestos exposure each year by 2015 and a further 45,000 mesothelioma deaths can be expected by 2050.

Daren Bach is founder of Provoke Online Marketing & Web Design
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