Asbestos Caused Lung Cancer and Other Complications You Probably Did Not Know

Since the late 1890s, asbestos has been known as a carcinogenic that brings about various health issues with every exposure. The worst thing with asbestos related complications is that they’re not immediate and take decades to develop. It can take 10-60 years to develop since the initial exposure. For workers exposed in the 60s to the 80s, its possible asbestos related diseases have started or about to start glaring their symptoms.

Obviously, occupational asbestos exposure has been largely managed and reduced through legislation and guidelines in the United States. But, people who were exposed to asbestos previously continue to suffer that initial exposure to the substance decades ago. This is why it’s critical for companies to be held accountable for injury or harm caused to people who never knew the dangers they were exposing themselves to or were never warned about the dangers that surround asbestos fiber inhalation.

If you’ve been diagnosed by asbestos related health specialists and found to have lung cancer or any other type of disease related to the carcinogenic material, contact an asbestos attorney to discuss the various compensations and awards you can take advantage of.

Asbestos complications

Globally, 125 million individuals are said to work in areas where they’re constantly exposed to asbestos. Statistics related to disease related to asbestos actually show over 90,000 deaths take place annually due to asbestos exposure related diseases and cancers such as asbestosis, lung cancer and pleural mesothelioma. According to the National Cancer Institute, millions of people across the United States working in various industries have been exposed to asbestos fibers since early 1940s.

Lots of steps have been taken by the federal and state governments to offer protection to workers exposed, but the truth is that lots of companies dealing with asbestos have fought total ban on asbestos related products. As a result, lots of workers continue being exposed to the deadly fibers.

Microscopic fibers

With asbestos related diseases requiring decades to develop into full-blown cancers and diseases, most people who’re middle aged or older are showing the symptoms of the exposure today. Disease related to the exposure happen when the microscopic asbestos were ingested or inhaled a long time ago and trapped in various body organs and tissues. They then irritate such organs as the lungs before the symptoms finally start showing later, leading to lung cancer, and pleural mesothelioma among others.

Malignant mesothelioma

Malignant mesothelioma is only caused by exposure to asbestos fibers. Mesothelioma is a type of cancer affecting the lining of the mesothelium tissue across the chest cavity, abdominal cavity, lungs and among other body organs. It includes the common form of mesothelium cancer known as pleural mesothelioma affecting lung surrounding tissues, peritoneal mesothelioma affecting abdominal cavity tissues, pericardial mesothelioma cancer affecting heart surrounding tissues and testicular mesothelioma. Not that pleural mesothelioma and lung cancer, both cancers caused by exposure to asbestos, are similar but very different.

In case you’ve been diagnosed with any form of mesothelioma contact asbestos related legal firm or mesothelioma attorney right away to discuss the various compensations you can seek to improve your life.

Lung cancer

In certain cases, lung cancer is known as bronchogenic carcinoma caused by the inhalation of asbestos fibers that get lodged inside the lungs and not in the lung tissue lining as in pleural mesothelioma. While pleural mesothelioma affects the outer lining, lung cancer affects the lung. As a result of an exposure, the result can be non-small cell lung cancer or small-cell lung cancer. Most of the lung cancer cases are largely non-small cell lung cancer, which includes large-cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma and cell carcinoma.

Ovarian cancer

Note that the IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) confirmed that ovarian cancer also results from occupational asbestos exposure even as the studies are ongoing and limited. Researchers have suspected that once asbestos fibers are inhaled they move via the abdominal cavity where they enter the ovaries.

Laryngeal cancer

Laryngeal cancer is mostly caused by heavy consumption of alcohol and smoking but asbestos exposure has also been found to cause the cancer. After asbestos fiber inhalation, the voice box or larynx is usually affected as the fibers accumulate within the voice box disrupting the flow of air resulting in cancer or a chronic inflammation.