Mesothelioma Help Cancer News

British Family Painful Reminder that Mesothelioma Can Develop from Secondhand Asbestos Exposure

• Nancy Meredith
• For Your Family

While most cases of mesothelioma affect individuals who were directly exposed to asbestos in the workplace, men who worked around asbestos, and brought the fibers home on their clothing, shoes and in their hair, may have inadvertently exposed their children and spouses to the hazards of the deadly toxin. One family in England is now dealing with this phenomenon as eight siblings, whose only exposure came from contact with the fibers that adhered their father who worked with asbestos products, battle mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases.

Asbestos is a known carcinogen and is proven to cause lung cancer, asbestosis, mesothelioma, a serious cancer caused by breathing in the asbestos fibers that then become lodged in the thin membrane that lines and encases the lungs, and other respiratory diseases. Even small amounts of asbestos and infrequent exposure can create a risk for contracting mesothelioma or other asbestos-related diseases.

According to the Yorkshire Post, two sisters in the family just died of mesothelioma caused by secondhand exposure they had to asbestos decades ago. The other siblings suffer from pleural plaques, emphysema and scarred lungs. They are also still at risk of developing mesothelioma. Their father worked at Cape Asbestos in Hebben Bridge, Yorkshire from the 1930’s through 1958. He died of lung cancer 10 years after leaving the company.

The family recalled that they would play with their father when he returned home from work with his clothes still covered in asbestos dust. “I remember my mother shaking his overalls and dust going everywhere,” said one sibling. She added that as children they would sometimes accompany their father to work on Sunday and would play in the piles of asbestos dust.

Most cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed 30 years or more after exposure. Currently there is no known cure for mesothelioma, and the average survival time varies from 4 – 18 months after diagnosis. According to Professor Julian Peto, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Institute of Cancer Research, the UK now has the highest death rate in the world from mesothelioma, with over 2,000 deaths a year.

Rise in Asbestos Use in U.S. Increases Urgency to Ban Cancer Causing Fiber

• Nancy Meredith
• Asbestos Exposure, Mesothelioma

The president of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization said that she was appalled by a recent U.S. government report showing a dramatic increase in asbestos imports into the United State in 2011. Asbestos, a mineral fiber, is a cause of cancer in humans, including mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung and abdominal cavity. Many nations have banned asbestos because it’s toxic, but the United States still allows the import of raw asbestos and asbestos-containing products.

Linda Reinstein, co-founder and president of the ADAO, an advocacy group, said the asbestos industry had argued for years that importation and exposure to asbestos have been gradually decreasing, but the new report shows that simply isn’t accurate.

According to the 2012 United State Geological Survey of mineral commodities, U.S. industries consumed 1,100 metric tons of asbestos from January through July 2011, compared to 820 metric tons during the same period in 2010. The difference represents a 34 percent increase in consumption, Reinstein said.

The U.S. Geological Survey report estimated that roofing felt materials account for about 60 percent of U.S. consumption of asbestos. The chlorine manufacturing industry, which utilizes asbestos diaphragms in the manufacturing of industrial chemicals, accounted for about 30 percent of asbestos consumption, the report said. The United States still has asbestos diaphragm cell plants.

The use of asbestos creates an occupational hazard of asbestos exposure. Asbestos exposure in the chlorine industry arises form the transport and storage of sacks of raw asbestos. Cutting open and empty sacks of asbestos and transferring asbestos into slurry mixing tanks and handling empty bags can cause additional exposures, according to testimony presented by environmental consultant Barry Castlemen to a U.S. Senate committee. The handling and storage of asbestos diaphragms presents another possible source of asbestos exposure, he said.

More than 30 years ago, the International Agency for Research on Cancer declared asbestos a human carcinogen, yet workplace exposure continues throughout the United States.

Reinstein called on Congress and the president to prohibit the importation of raw asbestos and asbestos-containing products. “I have lost my husband, Alan, to mesothelioma, a disease caused by asbestos exposure,” Reinstein said in a prepared statement. “Nothing can bring him or the hundreds of thousands of other victims back to life, but we can begin by aggressively preventing exposure thus eliminating deadly diseases.”

Approximately 3,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year. Most are older workers, retired workers and veterans who had workplace exposure to asbestos. Most people diagnosed with mesothelioma do not notice any symptoms of the disease for 20 years to 40 years after exposure.

For more information about mesothelioma, click here.

Elevated Rate of Lung Cancer Among Carolina Textile Workers Exposed to Asbestos, Study Says

• Nancy Meredith
• Asbestos Exposure, Mesothelioma

Researchers report that textile workers in North Carolina and South Carolina who were exposed to asbestos had significantly increased incidence of lung cancer. Asbestos, a mineral fiber used in thousands of products from building materials to textiles, is associated with serious respiratory diseases including asbestosis, a scarring of the lung, lung cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung and abdomen.

In the new study published in January issue of the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, researchers tracked the status of more than  6,100 textile workers who had been employed at four Carolina textile mills that previously used asbestos in manufacturing. From the 1950s through the early 1970s, textile plants converted chrysotile asbestos, typically imported from Canada, and cotton fibers into yarn and woven materials. That created an occupational hazard of asbestos exposure for unsuspecting textile workers, who typically did not wear any breathing protection.

The researchers, based at the University of Nebraska, Duke University and the University of North Carolina, reported a significantly elevated rate of death from lung cancer among the textile workers as compared to the general population. They determined that 3,356 of the textile workers employed in the mills had died as of 2003, and a disproportionate number had died of lung cancer, according to death certificate data.

The researchers also found a strong correlation between the increased mortality rate of lung cancer and the workers’ cumulative occupational exposure to asbestos. The cumulative exposure to asbestos varied considerably among the four plants. Exposure to asbestos usually occurs by breathing air in workplaces contaminated with microscopic asbestos fibers or swallowing asbestos fibers. Typically, workers do not experience symptoms of mesothelioma or other asbestos disease  for 20 years to 40 years after exposure to asbestos.

Another study published last year in the journal Lung Cancer found that textile workers in China who were exposed to asbestos had an increased risk of dying of lung cancer, mesothelioma and all forms of cancer. The trend was most pronounced among textile workers who had a high exposure to asbestos and also were smokers.

For more information about mesothelioma click here.

Families of Asbestos Workers At Risk of Mesothelioma From Exposure At Home

• Nancy Meredith
• Asbestos Exposure, Cancer, Mesothelioma

A report in a British newspaper describes the terrible legacy of asbestos disease that families of asbestos workers face. Asbestos is associated with scarring of the lungs and mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer of the lining of the lung and abdomen.

According to a  Jan. 17 article in the Yorkshire Post,  eight adult children of Kora Leah, who was a foreman at Cape Asbestos in Hebben Bridge, Yorkshire, have been diagnosed with asbestos-related disease. The family has lost two siblings in recent months to mesothelioma.

When Marjorie King, one of Leah’s daughters died last July at age 67, a tumor was found on her right lung and asbestos particles were discovered in her lung tissue. Deputy Coroner Paul Marks concluded after an inquest that she died of mesothelioma.

Her sister, Maureen McGeogh, 73, of West Yorkshire, recalled that she and her siblings would play with their father when he returned home from work with his clothes still covered in asbestos dust. “I remember my mother shaking his overalls and dust going everywhere,” McGeogh recalled.

She said the children sometimes accompanied their father to work on Sunday and would play in the piles of dust. They were unaware of the danger of the asbestos dust.

Of the other siblings, Gerald, 78, has pleural plaques and emphysema while Cedric, 74, Rosalind, 71, Raymond, 69 and Glynn, 64, all have scarred lungs. Because of their secondhand exposure to asbestos they are at higher risk of developing mesothelioma.

The father Kora Leah died of lung cancer in 1958, 10 years after leaving Cape Asbestos, according to the newspaper.

According to the National Cancer Institute, there is evidence that family members of workers heavily exposed to asbestos face an increased risk of developing mesothelioma. The risk results from exposure to asbestos brought into the home on clothing, shoes, skin and hair.

When asbestos fibers get inhaled, they get trapped in the lung and remain there for a long time. The symptoms of mesothelioma typically appear 30 years to 50 years after initial exposure to asbestos. Possible signs of mesothelioma include shortness of breath and pain under the rib cage, pain or tightening of the chest, and a persistent cough that gets worse over time. It’s important to check with a doctor if you develop any of these symptoms and inform the doctor of any known exposure to asbestos.

Dying Woman’s Request For Canada to Stop Exporting Asbestos

• Nancy Meredith
• Asbestos Exposure, Mesothelioma, Patients

Just over a year ago, Rachel Lee, a South Korean woman diagnosed with advanced mesothelioma accompanied an international delegation to Canada to urge Quebec provincial officials to stop the subsidy and export of cancer-causing asbestos to Asian countries.

In December 2010, Lee met with Clement Gignac, Quebec’s minister of natural resources and wildlife and called upon the minister to commit to stop subsidizing asbestos production in the province including the shuttered Jeffrey Mine.

Canada is a leading exporter of chrysotile asbestos, a mineral fiber that causes respiratory diseases including lung cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung and abdomen. According to the World Health Organization estimates, 107,000 people die each year of asbestos-related disease, including asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma.

South Korea banned asbestos imports in 2009. But prior to that date, nearly two-thirds of the asbestos imported into South Korea came from Canada. Lee had lived close to a factory that produce cement products made of chrysotile asbestos.

During the 2010 visit, Lee spoke emotionally at a press conference at the Quebec National Assembly about the prospect of dying of asbestos disease and leaving her children as orphans and her husband as a widower. On Dec. 21, 2011, Lee died of mesothelioma, according to The Tyee, a Canadian online newspaper.

Following Lee’s death, anti-asbestos activists issued an open letter to the Quebec cabinet minister, reminding him of Lee’s dying wish and urging the provincial government to take a stand against the mining and export of asbestos. The government has not responded to the request, according to the newspaper.

In the U.S. approximately 3,000 people a year are diagnosed with mesothelioma. Most are older workers, retired workers and veterans who were expose to asbestos decades ago. Mesothelioma has a long latency period, with  symptoms of mesothelioma typically appearing 30 years to 50 years after exposure to asbestos.