Author: Alex Strauss

A new Italian report contains some sobering news for people who once worked in the world’s shipyards: Their risk of developing deadly malignant mesothelioma remains high even three decades after their jobs ended. Occupational medicine specialists just released their assessment of asbestos exposure among shipbuilders who were diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases between 1996 and 2015. Each case was carefully evaluated to determine how these mesothelioma patients were exposed to asbestos, how heavy and long that exposure was, and how much of the asbestos remained in their bodies. Asbestos-Related Diseases and Shipbuilding The team concluded that the primary asbestos diseases afflicting most of the sick Italian shipbuilders were pleural mesothelioma and lung cancer. They also uncovered a…

A 30+ year asbestos ban in Iceland has so far done little to decrease the incidence of the so-called asbestos cancer. A new study involving researchers from the country’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the University of Iceland, and the Centre for Health Security and Communicable Disease Control finds that malignant mesothelioma is still on the rise in Iceland and shows no signs of slowing. Asbestos and Mesothelioma in Iceland Asbestos is a naturally occurring fibrous mineral once prized for its strength, abundance, and resistance to heat and corrosion. Although Iceland has no asbestos mines of its own, the country imported the mineral to use in various building products for decades. At the peak of Iceland’s asbestos importation in 1980, the country…