Pleural Mesothelioma

Asbestos mainly affects the lungs and lining of the lungs, the pleura. Asbestos causes two main types of diseases: cancer and asbestosis.

Asbestosis

Breathing high levels of asbestos fibers have long or short exposure to high levels of asbestos can cause scarring lesions that appear in the lung and pleura. This disease is called asbestosis, lung was the first disease that was associated with asbestos and can cause disability and death.

It is defined as diffuse interstitial fibrosis of the lungs resulting from exposure to asbestos dust and, therefore, commonly occurs in workers exposed to asbestos. People with asbestosis because of the scars in the lungs, difficulty breathing, often a cough, and in severe cases suffer enlarged heart.

Breathing low levels of asbestos can cause alterations in the pleura, generating so-called “plaques”. Pleural plaques can occur in workers and occasionally in people who live in areas with high environmental levels of asbestos. The effects of pleural plaques on respiration are not usually serious, but exposure to higher levels can cause a thickening of the pleura which may restrict breathing.

Cancer

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the World Health Organization (WHO / WHO) and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency – EPA) EE. UU. have determined that asbestos is carcinogenic to humans.

It is known that breathing asbestos can increase the risk of cancer in humans. There are two types of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos: lung cancer and mesothelioma.
The first reports linking lung cancer and asbestos date back to 1935. The cancer caused by asbestos is not immediately apparent but emerges after several years (pleural mesothelioma usually has a latency period of 20 to 40 years). Studies of workers also suggest that breathing asbestos can increase the chances of getting cancer in other body parts (stomach, larynx, intestines, esophagus, pancreas and kidneys). The early identification and treatment of all cancer can increase the quality of life and survival of the individual.

Common symptoms are loss of appetite and weight, fatigue, chest pain, hemoptysis, or coughing up blood and shortness of breath.

It was suggested that the combination of exposure to asbestos and cigarette smoke significantly increases the chances of contracting lung cancer. Although this combination is considered to asbestos as the main cause of death, up from smoking. Generally production companies are hiding, even today, consider the potential impact of smoking on cancer development, since most of the manufacturing population were smokers at times of peak use of asbestos. Several court decisions have ruled out, depending on levels of exposure that the incidence of smoking is higher than that of asbestos for the development of occupational cancer.

Lots of deaths from cancer, previously diagnosed as being due only to lung cancers are currently considered caused by asbestos, but only if done correctly autopsy of the deceased, so that relevant statistics are not entirely reliable.

There is controversy about whether chrysotile is carcinogenic potency higher or lower than other varieties of asbestos.

Tags: asbestos fibers, Asbestosis, loss of appetite, lung cancer, Mesothelioma