Mesothelioma – Asbestos Lung Cancer
Hundreds of thousands of people have inflicted lung cancer on themselves. Everybody, unless you have been living on the moon for fifty years, knows the side effect of smoking is to put foreign matter into your lungs. This foreign matter is tar and other carcinogens that cause the lung cancer. Hence I say that people are doing it to themselves. People who work with asbestos are equally putting themselves in harms way. Airborne particles of asbestos can be breathed in and infect the lungs and thereby cause lung cancer.
It is general knowledge that smoking is the number one cause of lung cancer. Combine smoking with asbestos exposure and the risk of developing asbestos lung cancer is roughly 50%. Research has shown a synergistic interaction takes place between asbestos exposure and cigarette smoking. The risk is greater for asbestos lung cancer if the two are combined than just one of these factors alone. Research has estimated that people who are exposed to asbestos and have histories of smoking are at a risk of developing lung cancer that is eight times higher than those who have not been exposed to asbestos and smoke.
This research is frightening for those in the risk groups above and will cause workers to give up their work if they feel they are in danger of developing the disease. For those who carry on with work in contact with asbestos then, not smoking, or giving up smoking will lower the risk of getting the disease. There is now much information to be had to help in the understanding of lung cancer how it is related to smoking tobacco and the dangers of passive smoking or breathing in the smoke from someone who is smoking nearby or in an enclosed area.
The entire headline grabbing stuff about ling cancer is around smoking and passive or second hand smoking. But asbestos is a real live issue for many people. The best places for more informed and informative discussion on all the causes of lung cancer are; your local oncologist (cancer specialist) at your nearest cancer center. The Internet is a really useful first port of call too.
We also have the great advantage of being able to go on to the web to find the many sites that will deal with these issues and will give us the information that we require. The internet will provide us with the facts and figures about asbestos related lung cancer and articles on current research into this subject.
