How Long Does Mesothelioma Risk Last After Asbestos Exposure?
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How Long Does Mesothelioma Risk Last After Asbestos Exposure?

ByAlex Strauss

If you experienced asbestos exposure more than 30 years ago and you have not developed mesothelioma, your risk for the disease may be starting to decline.  A new Italian study is the latest to suggest that mesothelioma risk may taper off over time. A group of occupational health experts conducted the study. Their goal was to predict mesothelioma trends in Italy until 2040.  The data shows that mesothelioma cases will probably peak this year. But they also show that most of those cases will happen in people with asbestos exposure in the last three decades.  Asbestos Exposure and Mesothelioma Incidence Asbestos is the main cause of malignant mesothelioma. A small number of mesothelioma cases happen without any known asbestos exposure….

Early Mesothelioma Deaths a “Proxy” for Childhood Asbestos Exposure in Italy
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Early Mesothelioma Deaths a “Proxy” for Childhood Asbestos Exposure in Italy

ByAlex Strauss

A new study out of Italy is a sobering reminder of the devastating effects of early asbestos exposure.  Mesothelioma is rare in people under 50. But  the new study found about 35 Italians under 50 died of mesothelioma every year from 2003 to 2016. The highest number of deaths were among people from Northern industrialized parts of the country. These are the people most likely to experience environmental asbestos exposure as children.  The researchers say these early deaths indicate the toxicity of the environment in these regions – particularly to those who grew up there.  The Link Between Asbestos Exposure and Mesothelioma Malignant mesothelioma is an extremely rare cancer of internal membranes. It was almost unheard of before industrialization. Many…

Asbestos in Mesothelioma Development: No Amount is Safe
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Asbestos in Mesothelioma Development: No Amount is Safe

ByAlex Strauss

A new study contains some sobering news about the role of asbestos in mesothelioma development. Public health officials in Italy analyzed the medical records of people who died of pleural mesothelioma in the Broni, Italy area. Broni was the site of an asbestos cement plant from 1932 until 1993. They discovered that even some people who did not work with asbestos had a high risk of dying from this rare cancer. In fact, their risk for mesothelioma was higher even though their asbestos exposure was smaller. It suggests that no amount of asbestos exposure is “safe” — especially for people who are extra sensitive because of their genetics. Small Amounts of Asbestos in Mesothelioma Development Scientists began to suspect the…

Peritoneal Mesothelioma Rates Higher in Italy’s Asbestos-Producing Regions
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Peritoneal Mesothelioma Rates Higher in Italy’s Asbestos-Producing Regions

ByAlex Strauss

Some Italian workers are paying a high price for Italy’s former position as the top European producer of asbestos. According to a new study in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, both men and women who lived and worked in areas of heavy asbestos production are far more likely than their peers elsewhere in the country to contract peritoneal mesothelioma. Peritoneal mesothelioma is the rarer form of a very rare cancer. While the more common pleural mesothelioma occurs in the membranes around the lungs, peritoneal mesothelioma starts on the membrane that surrounds abdominal organs. Like all forms of mesothelioma, it is asbestos-related, hard to treat, aggressive, and usually lethal. To get an idea how prevalent peritoneal mesothelioma is in Italy…

Beyond Mesothelioma: Asbestos Linked to Digestive Cancers
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Beyond Mesothelioma: Asbestos Linked to Digestive Cancers

ByAlex Strauss

Scientists have long known that mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer that affects the membrane around organs, is not the only cancer linked to asbestos exposure. Numerous studies have also found a link between asbestos and lung cancer. Now, a new study conducted in France and published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine suggests that, in addition to mesothelioma, asbestos-exposed workers also face a significantly higher risk of digestive cancers, including cancers of the esophagus, liver, colon and rectum. The study focused on a group of 2024 workers who worked in an asbestos plant in France between 1978 and 2009. Not surprisingly, people in the study faced a higher incidence of mesothelioma, a cancer that is extremely rare in the general public. But…

Later Exposure Lowers Mesothelioma Risk
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Later Exposure Lowers Mesothelioma Risk

ByAlex Strauss

The later in life a person is exposed to asbestos, the less likely they are to develop mesothelioma, regardless of how long the exposure is.  That is the conclusion of a large population-based control study in France aimed at calculating the risk of mesothelioma among workers based on the time and duration of their asbestos exposure. Asbestos is the only known cause of malignant pleural mesothelioma, a cancer in the tissue around the lungs. Asbestos was once a common component of building materials and insulation in France, just as it was in the rest of Europe and the U.S. Most people who develop mesothelioma have been exposed to asbestos at work or at home at multiple times in their lives. For the new…