Asbestos Exposure
Asbestos, a mineral that can occur naturally in the environment has been used by man in a wide range of products. This material, believed to have been in use as far back as 3000 BC, was also rumored to have been first quarried on the Greek island of Ewoia. Once widely used in many places, this substance then started to emerge as something to be reckoned with when the dangers of exposure to asbestos started to show its ugly head. Soon people began to avoid the use of asbestos, but for many people, it was too late. The damage was already done. It was soon found out that asbestos can cause anything from discomfort to death, all due to the effects their microscopic fibers have on the human body. Pleural plaques and asbestosis are just a couple of the illnesses one can get from regular exposure to asbestos. Another of these rather deadly diseases associated with asbestos is mesothelioma. This is a deadly disease that can normally take many decades to develop but may take only a matter of months from the onset of symptoms to kill.Mesothelioma, caused by ingesting or breathing in loose asbestos fibers, can affect the lung, abdominal cavities, and the chest. With a very long latency period, it could sometimes take thirty years or more before the person even realizes that they have contracted the illness. The onset of symptoms can even take up to fifty years or more in some cases. Once these symptoms have manifested themselves in the victim, the lifespan of the person can sometimes become as short as several months.
Between the 1950s and the 1980s, a lot of people, mostly men, worked in industries that often exposed them to asbestos on a daily basis. For extended periods of time, these men unwittingly worked with this silent killer mainly because it was so widely used due to it being cheap and having fire resistant properties. The adverse effects of the mineral were still relatively unheard of then. While certain circles had their suspicions at that time, workers did not question the lack of protection solely because no accurate information was available then regarding the negative effects of working so closely with asbestos.
While it is thought that many companies and manufacturers were aware of the deadly effects of this mineral from as early as the 1920s, they seem to have ignored the information, hence their failure to provide oblivious employees with protection against the long-term effects of asbestos. Some of the workers who were mostly likely to come across asbestos on a day to day basis included insulators, plasterers, electricians, mechanics, bricklayers, carpenters, and other tradesmen. With these professionals working closely with materials and products that contained asbestos, they were considered to be at the top of the risk ladder. Other possible victims of loose asbestos fibers are the families of these workers. They also run the risk of inhaling these fibers from the clothes, skin, or hair of their loved ones who worked with the substance. This, in turn, could also result in asbestos related diseases.
A lot of workers have been exposed to asbestos over the years, with quite a number discovering several decades later just what an impact their work had on their health. Many of the victims of mesothelioma coming to light today are men since it was mostly men who worked with asbestos during those times. These workers are now finding out that they have this cancer and other asbestos related disorders, as the symptoms finally start to emerge.
Asbestos exposure is the primary cause of the malignant mesothelioma and other cancer forms. Pleural plaques, asbestosis, and other respiratory and health problems can also be garnered from it, however, despite such knowledge, asbestos can still be found in insulation materials in quite a few places worldwide. This trend, therefore, shows us that asbestos-caused diseases will continue to pose a threat to the well-being and lives of people everywhere.
