Mesothelioma Research

Asbestos has been tightly regulated in the U.S. in order to prevent people from being exposed to the dangerous substance, whether occupationally or incidentally. However, in some countries the mineral is still widely used, often resulting in serious illnesses among industrial workers.

For example, in a study recently published in the journal Thorax, researchers revealed the results of 37 years of monitoring the respiratory health of chrysotile asbestos workers. The team said that, compared to healthy adults, these employees had three times the risk of asbestos-related lung diseases.

The authors, who hail from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said that the respiratory-disease-related mortality rate was significantly higher than average among these workers, even after controlling for smoking status.

Out of 577 asbestos workers, 96 died of lung disease over the course of the study.

Researchers emphasized the importance of the length of the investigation, since asbestos-related respiratory illnesses can have a very long latency period, often on the order of decades.

In the U.S., workers are still feeling the effects of decades-old exposure to asbestos. The Environmental Working Group estimates that 30 Americans die every day from the complications related to contact with the mineral - a figure that is roughly equivalent to the number of deaths caused by assaults with firearms.