New American Mesothelioma Epidemic Predicted

Northwestern Montana can expect an epidemic of mesothelioma years in the next 10 to 20, said Dr. Alan Whitehouse, a lung specialist who works intensively in asbestos disease. Writing in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine reported that Dr. White House, that development workers and other residents to asbestos WR Grace vermiculite mine in Libby, MT the disease in the next two decades will be suspended.

Mesothelioma is a cancer of the mesothelium, the thin membranethe lines of the chest and abdominal cavity and covers the organs within each of these cavities. Mesothelioma is a relatively rare cancer and accounts for only 1% of all cancer diagnoses, and almost all cases of mesothelioma are linked to asbestos exposure. It is caused by inhaling microscopic asbestos fibers.

The inhaled fibers work their way into the chest cavity or abdominal cavity, and lodge in the mesothelium. The membrane is thickened into a hard, inflexible bark,Education bumps and knots. The extension of cancerous tissue produces large amounts of fluid, pleural or peritoneal cavity, the crowds, and the cancer is compressed in the vicinity organs. The disease progresses slowly, symptoms may not appear for 15 years, sometimes as long as 40 years after first exposure.

Pleural mesothelioma, lung, occur about four times as often as peritoneal mesothelioma. In pleural mesothelioma is usually only one lungare involved. In mesothelioma victims are five times as many men as women, a fact that asbestos reflects the distribution of men and women in occupations with high stress.

Mesothelioma researchers have found that exposure to asbestos dust for as little as a month or two later led to the development of mesothelioma 30-40 years. The vermiculite mine in Libby, MT closed down in 1990, but residents and temporary workers were exposed toDecades before.

"The scale of the epidemic of mesothelioma due to environmental claims based on years of Libby is probably not for another high point of 10 to 20" Whitehouse said. "This is a public health problem of considerable size and has the need for monitoring and early detection of disease."

Early detection gives patients broad options for treatment, and often for a longer life expectancy of this aggressive cancer.

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