The risk of asbestos lung cancer

Asbestos has been classified as a known human carcinogen (cancer-causing material) U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, EPA and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Studies have shown that exposure to asbestos may increase the risk of lung cancer and mesothelioma.

While most asbestos cancers are related to the intensity and duration of exposure, reports in medical journals have linked some mesotheliomas to short exposure periods, the order of months. People who get asbestosis have usually been exposed to high levels of asbestos widely. The symptoms of these diseases do not usually come out to about 20 to 30 years after the first exposure to asbestos.

Asbestos lung disease grew at very high rates in the mid-20th century, when patients were exposed to asbestos decades before eventually develop the disease. British asbestos workers were among the first that have been detected to suffer from lung cancer related to asbestos.

Most lung cancer begins to asbestos in the lining of the bronchi, the tubes in which the trachea divides. However, it also can start elsewhere, such as the trachea, bronchioles (small branches of the bronchi), or alveoli (air sacs in the lungs). Although the cancer usually develops slowly, once that happens, the cancer cells can break off and spread to other areas of the body.

Asbestos has been recognized as a major risk factor for lung cancer for several years. However, although death statistics for Great Britain are easy to obtain, the number of deaths attributable to asbestos can not be concluded in a straight line. This is because there are many agents that can lead to disease - most importantly, snuff smoke - and lung cancer resulting from asbestos exposure are clinically identical to those caused by these other agents.

There was a study indicating that exposure to asbestos and smoke makes you ninety times more likely to contract lung cancer than someone who is not exposed to any. Symptoms of lung cancer are cough, irregularities, breathing, chest pains and anemia.