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Spotlighting Asbestos and its Lethal Legacy

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

By Wade Rawlins

A growing number of communities in the United States will observe Sept. 26 as National Mesothelioma Awareness Day to put a spotlight on the cancer associated with asbestos exposure. A community in New Jersey, Berkeley Heights, is the latest to issue a proclamation designating a day to focus public attention on mesothelioma. The aggressive disease claims an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 lives a year in the U.S.

As the day of observance approaches, it’s fitting to recall the words of warning from the U.S. Surgeon Generals’ office on the occasion of National Asbestos Week in April.

“In recent decades, because of concern about asbestos’ health effects, production and use has declined substantially,” then acting Surgeon General Steven K. Galson said. “Most individuals exposed to asbestos, whether in a home, in the workplace, or out-of-doors will not develop the disease. But there is no level of asbestos exposure that is known to be safe and minimizing your exposure will minimize your risk of developing asbestos-related diseases.”

Galson emphasized that asbestos is dangerous if inhaled and activities that disturb asbestos cause the microscopic fibers to float in the air, increasing the chances of inhaling asbestos and developing diseases.

In the 1970s, federal agencies developed regulatory standards for exposure to airborne asbestos fibers based on evidence of respiratory disease in workers. Since then, the use of asbestos has declined substantially and mining of asbestos in the U.S. stopped in 2002. But many asbestos products remain in use and new products continue to be manufactured and imported.

“Once breathed in, asbestos fibers can remain in the lungs for years and even decades,” Galson said. “Inhalation of asbestos can cause inflammation and scarring of the lungs, changes in the lining of the chest cavity around the lungs and certain cancers.”

Mesothelioma is a cancer of the lining of the lungs, abdomen or heart closely associated with asbestos exposure. According to a report by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, deaths from malignant mesothelioma, increased 7 percent between 1999, when the disease began being categorized separately on death certificates, and 2004, the most recent year of complete data. In 2004, 2,657 people died of mesothelioma. The disease usually appears 20 to 30 years after exposure to asbestos.

Meanwhile, deaths from asbestosis, a chronic disease, increased almost 20-fold from the late 1960s, when NIOSH began tracking them, to the late 1990s, the report says. They have leveled off at about 1,500 per year in the U.S. and are expected to continue for several more decades.

Linda Reinstein, executive director of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, an advocacy group, said a Senate resolution urging the surgeon general to act was a landmark step. “As a mesothelioma widow, I am pleased to see the Surgeon General’s statement, as asbestos has been a known carcinogen for more than thirty years," Reinstein said. "ADAO is excited to be able to advance educational efforts with his statement, which strongly reaffirms the need to ban asbestos.”



Surgeon General's Statement

Labels: Featured News

posted by Wade Rawlins at 12:10 PM
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