Category: International News
British Study Finds Many Workplace Cancer Cases Involve Asbestos Exposure
About 13,600 new cases of cancer and 8,000 cancer deaths in Great Britain each year are linked to workplace exposures, particularly jobs involving exposure to asbestos or diesel engine fumes, a new study shows.
The study, funded by the British Health and Safety Executive, a government work safety agency, found that nearly half of the cancer deaths were among male construction workers who are most likely to encounter asbestos, a known carcinogen and other carcinogens such as silica and diesel exhaust. Breathing asbestos is associated with serious respiratory diseases including lung cancer, malignant mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung, and asbestosis, a chronic scarring of the lung.
The study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, indicated that four in 10 work-related cancer cases and nearly half the occupation-related deaths in Britain involved construction workers. Around 70 percent of the occupation-related deaths in construction workers were linked to asbestos.
Even though asbestos is no long used in new construction, remodeling and maintenance on older buildings containing asbestos materials can put workers at risk of exposure to the asbestos fibers.
“This study gives us a clear insight into how the jobs people do affect their risk of cancer,” Dr. Lesley Rushton, an occupational epidemiologist at Imperial College London said in British Journal of Cancer press release. “We hope these findings will help develop ways of reducing health risks caused by exposure to carcinogens in the workplace.”
The researchers cautioned that the estimates of cancer cases and deaths related to occupational exposure are conservative and could be high as new work-related risk facts are identified.
Asbestos remains the most important occupational risk factor.
Dame Helena Shovelton, chief executive of the British Lung Foundation, a non-profit group, said in a BBC news report that asbestos-related diseases kill more people in Great Britain than traffic accidents and the number of deaths is projected to continue increasing in Britain until 2016.
Millions of houses and building were built in Britain and the United States during the decades when asbestos was a widely used building from World War II to about 1980. As long as people are living or working in the buildings, they are at risk of exposure to asbestos if the material is disturbed.
When inhaled, microscopic asbestos fibers typically lodge in the lungs, causing inflammation that can eventually lead to malignancy. Symptoms of mesothelioma and other asbestos diseases typically take 20 years to 40 years to appear. People recently diagnosed with mesothelioma may have been exposed to asbestos in the 1960s or 1970s.
Approximately, 3,000 people are diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma each year in the United States. Most are older workers, retired workers and veterans who were exposed to asbestos in a workplace such as a factory, shipyard or construction site. Construction workers and demolition workers are among the occupations most at risk today of asbestos exposure.
Higher Risk of Mesothelioma Among Workers at Chlorine Chemical Plant, Study Finds
A new study published in June issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine reports excessive rates of pleural mesothelioma and bladder cancer among workers at a major chlorine chemical plant in France. Pleural Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer of the lining of the lungs associated with exposure to asbestos.
The study, performed by French researchers in Grenoble, France, analyzed the incidence of tumors from 1979 to 2002 among 2,742 men who worked at the chlorine plant. The study found an significant excess of mesothelioma tumors among workers hired before 1964.
France now bans asbestos because it’s a known cause of cancer, including pleural mesothelioma, peritoneal mesothelioma and lung cancer. But for many years, asbestos was used in the diaphragm-cell process of making chlorine. Asbestos is still used in chlorine manufacturing plants in the U.S. Workers may be exposed to asbestos when transporting sacks of asbestos or when cutting open and emptying sacks of asbestos into mixing tanks. The handling of the empty sack also presented an exposure hazard.
Unlike France, asbestos is not banned in the United States, though its use has dropped significantly since its peak in the 1970s. But the chlorine manufacturing industry remains a significant consumer of asbestos in the U.S. Many older chlorine plants in the U.S. use asbestos diaphragms and gaskets as part of the production process, putting workers at risk of exposure to asbestos. Some have converted their chlorine manufacturing processes to more environmentally friendly, safer technology that do not use asbestos.
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. The chlorine manufacturing industry, which uses asbestos diaphragms in the manufacturing of industrial chemicals, accounted for about 30 percent of asbestos consumption, the report said.
As a result of past asbestos use in the U.S., Americans are now dying from asbestos cancers and asbestosis, a chronic scarring of the lungs, at the rate of 10,000 people per year, according to Barry Castleman, an environmental and public health consultant who testified before the U.S. Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee in June 2007.
Symptoms of mesothelioma typically take 20 to 50 years to appear after workers inhale microscopic asbestos fibers. Many workers exposed to asbestos in the 1960s or 1970s may only recently have begun noticing symptoms such as pain beneath the ribs or shortness of breath or only been diagnosed with mesothelioma or asbestos disease.
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New British Research Suggests Link Between Asbestos and Heart Disease, Stroke
A new study of British workers finds that asbestos may cause other serious illnesses in addition to mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer that produces tumors in the lining of the lung.
The study, published in the latest issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, reports that workers in Great Britain exposed to asbestos in the workplace are more likely to die from heart disease than people in the general population.
Asbestos is recognized as a cause of serious respiratory disease in humans, including asbestosis, a scarring of lung, lung cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer of lining of the lungs and abdomen. But it hasn’t been established whether asbestos exposure is a risk factor in cardiovascular disease.
But it’s well established that inhaling or swallowing asbestos causes inflammation. And inflammatory processes are involved in the development of cardiovascular disease, which includes diseases of the heart and blood vessels.
So researchers, led by Anne-Helen Harding of Britain’s Health and Safety Laboratory, analyzed the presence of cardiovascular disease and death rates among nearly 100,000 asbestos workers between 1971 and 2005. Many of the workers had jobs that involved asbestos removal.
The researchers reported a significantly higher number of deaths from ischemic heart disease and stroke among asbestos workers than the general population. Male asbestos workers were 63 percent more likely to die of a stroke and 39 percent more likely to die of heart disease.
The researchers also observed a correlation between the length of exposure to asbestos and the likelihood of developing ischemic heart disease, a reduced blood supply in the heart muscle. The researchers said the findings provide some evidence that workplace asbestos exposure contributes to heart disease in exposed workers.
Asbestos exposure is the leading cause of work-related deaths in Great Britain, accounting for approximately 4,000 deaths per year, according to the Health and Safety Executive, a British government agency that oversees workplace safety. In the United States, approximately, 2,500 to 3,000 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma in the United States each year and similar numbers of people die of mesothelioma each year. Symptoms of asbestos disease typically take 20 years to 40 years to appear, so workers exposed in 1970s may only recently have begun noticing symptoms such as shortness of breath, pain beneath the ribs and a persistent cough.
Climber Who Survived a Night at Mt. Everest Succumbs to Mesothelioma
Six years ago, Australian mountain climber Lincoln Hall was given up for dead after reaching the summit of Mount Everest and then developing a severe form of altitude sickness. Broadcast reports of Hall’s death were premature though. The tough mountain climber managed to survive a freezing night alone at more than 28,000 feet without food or shelter. Delirious and frostbitten, he greeted an astonished group of ascending climbers at sunrise the next morning. Three days later, he walked off the mountain.
Mount Everest couldn’t vanquish Lincoln Hall. But the rugged climber faced a still greater risk: childhood exposure to asbestos. Six years after his miraculous feat of mountaintop survival, Hall, age 56, died of mesothelioma last Tuesday at a Sydney, Australia hospital after a year-long struggle with the disease, according to The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.
Mesothelioma is a cancer caused by inhaling toxic asbestos. Hall was exposed to cancer causing asbestos-cement sheets as a child in the mid-1960s while helping his father build playhouses on their property, the newspaper reported. Most people are exposed to asbestos in the workplace, but some people inhale asbestos in the home as well. The microscopic fibers can lodge deep in the lung and remain there a lifetime, causing inflammation and eventually disease.
Many people exposed to asbestos in the 1960s and 1970s are still at risk of developing mesothelioma or may only recently have been diagnosed with mesothelioma symptoms. The respiratory cancer has a long development period and is difficult to diagnose. A skilled author who wrote several best-selling books about mountaineering, Hall was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2011.
Through his experiences, Hall developed a spiritual affinity with the Himalayas and helped establish the Australian Himalayan Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that raised money for schools in his beloved mountains, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
Hall’s death surprised many of his friends who believed that Hall was virtually invincible and could overcome mesothelioma, an aggressive form of cancer.
Projected Rise of Asbestos Disease in South Korea During 21st Century
The number of people dying of mesothelioma is near its peak in the United States. But in many Asian countries, the wave of asbestos-related deaths is just starting to build. The Ministry of Environment in South Korea projected the number of people suffering from malignant mesothelioma will continue increasing until 2045, according to the Korea Herald.
Mesothelioma is an incurable cancer of the lining of the lung, chest cavity and abdomen linked to inhaling asbestos fibers. It is a preventable disease if exposure to asbestos is avoided. Mesothelioma sufferers typically develop symptoms of the respiratory disease 20 years to 50 years after initial exposure to asbestos. Many patients are older workers, veterans or retirees.
According to the report, the number of mesothelioma patients in South Korea increased from 61 in 1996 to 152 in 2007. Meanwhile, the number of deaths from asbestos exposure more than doubled from 24 in 2001 to 57 in 2006. By comparison, approximately 2,500 to 3,000 people die each year of mesothelioma in the United States.
In Japan, researchers have observed an increase in cases of mesothelioma starting in 2000. Japan banned asbestos in 2005. The incidence of mesothelioma in Japan is expected to peak around 2030.
In Korea, a new law regulating asbestos use will take effect in 2012 and reduce the occupational hazard of asbestos. The National Institute of Environmental Research expects the regulations to prevent up to 20,000 deaths from asbestos disease a year.
Asbestos was widely used in many building materials in the United States for much of the 20th century, even though the health hazards of asbestos were well understood. The U.S. finally began restricting the use of asbestos in the late 1970s.
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