| By :
Wendy Moyer
Mesothelioma and other asbestos related diseases are often fatal. However, even though there has been a dramatic decline in the use of asbestos over the past several decades, the number of deaths that are related to asbestos exposure is still on the rise. The CDC (United States Centers for Disease Control) reported a surge of deaths related to asbestos in the autumn of 2004. And the National Cancer Institute has said that in the United States approximately two thousand new cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed per year. Throughout the world there are about nine new cases of mesothelioma per every million people. Asbestosis is a disease that is caused when asbestos is inhaled. The asbestos fibers cause fibrous scar tissue to grow in the lung. Ultimately asbestosis victims are unable to breathe because of these growths. Asbestosis is characterized by a persistent cough and a shortness of breath. More occupation-related deaths are attributed to asbestosis than to either black lung disease or silicosis. Now linked to malignant mesothelioma, asbestosis has become the most deadly of any work related respiratory illness. Between 1986 and 2000 the number of deaths from asbestos went up from 77 to 1,493. Unfortunately, according to a report from the CDC, it is anticipated that the death rate will continue to rise for at least another decade. The reason the CDC believes that the death rate may rise is that even though asbestos is not being used as much as it had been in the past, there is a lag between the time that a person is first exposed to asbestos and the development of asbestosis and ultimately death. It can take as long as forty five years from exposure for the disease to develop. Although asbestos mining had significantly declined by 1998, asbestosis became the number one killer amongst job related respiratory diseases partially due to the long incubation period of the disease. Roughly eight million workers in the United States were exposed to asbestos. Their families were often subject to second hand exposure when the workers unintentionally brought asbestos dust home with them on their work clothes. Asbestos exposure is considered to be the linked to at least 50% of all mesothelioma cases. Although mesothelioma is three times as common in men as it is in women, it isn't linked to gender or race. It is believed to be due to the greater number of men who were exposed to asbestos than were women. And for smokers who have been exposed to asbestos the possibility of developing mesothelioma is fifty-five times more than for non-smokers who have not been exposed to asbestos. The peak incidence of malignant mesothelioma occurs approximately forty years after being exposed to asbestos. It usually develops in people when they are between fifty and seventy years old.
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