Posts Tagged ‘asbestos’

Asbestos on the Beach

July 8, 2008 in Asbestos News
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“”Asbestos” and “beach” don’t usually land in the same sentence. Then again, it was 11 years ago that the Sun-Times, in a 1997 investigative series, revealed the presence of asbestos fibers and asbestos-containing material at Illinois Beach State Park.”
read on

  • Mesothelioma

    Mesothelioma is a form of cancer that is almost always caused by previous exposure to asbestos. In this disease, malignant cells develop in the mesothelium, a protective lining that covers most of the body's internal organs. Its most common site is the pleura (outer lining of the lungs and chest cavity), but it may also occur in the peritoneum (the lining of the abdominal cavity) or the pericardium (a sac that surrounds the heart).

  • Origin

    Most people who develop mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos particles, or they have been exposed to asbestos dust and fibre in other ways, such as by washing the clothes of a family member who worked with asbestos. Unlike lung cancer, there is no association between mesothelioma and smoking.[1] Compensation via asbestos funds or lawsuits is an important issue in mesothelioma (see asbestos and the law).

  • Symptoms

    The symptoms of mesothelioma include shortness of breath due to pleural effusion (fluid between the lung and the chest wall) or chest wall pain, and general symptoms such as weight loss. The diagnosis can be made with chest X-rays and a CT scan, and confirmed with a biopsy (tissue sample) and microscopic examination. A thoracoscopy (inserting a tube with a camera into the chest) can be used to take biopsies. It allows the introduction of substances such as talc to obliterate the pleural space (called pleurodesis), which prevents more fluid from accumulating and pressing on the lung. Despite treatment with chemotherapy, radiation therapy or sometimes surgery, the disease carries a poor prognosis. Research about screening tests for the early detection of mesothelioma is ongoing.