Mesothelioma yanks a lot of good people out of a whole lot of people’s lives. Here is a short video dealing with coping with that loss…
Mesothelioma Support : Coping With the Loss
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Mesothelioma Risk Still Exists After 9/11
A decade after the attack on the World Trade Centers, health officials are bracing for latent health effects such as mesotheliomaamong the tens of thousands of people exposed to toxic dust at the scene.
The collapse of the World Trade Centers in 2001 released huge clouds of dust and spread high levels of airborne pollutants across Manhattan and part of Brooklyn, New York. Asbestos fibers, which causes mesothelioma, was one of the pollutants released. Malignant mesothelioma is a disease in which a cancer grows on the mesothelium, the membrane that forms the lining of several body cavities.
An estimated 60,000 to 70,000 responders suffered the most concentrated exposure, but thousands of other people who were just in the area at the time – particularly in the first three days after the disaster – are also likely to have inhaled at least some toxic smoke and particulates including asbestos.
Air quality analysis conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency of the World Trade Center site around 9/11 revealed a long list of deadly contaminants. Within the clouds of smoke and dust were asbestos, pulverized concrete, glass fibers, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH’s) and polychlorinated furans and dioxins. An EPA health risk assessment in 2007 concluded that people exposed to these contaminants during the collapse of the towers and for several hours afterward were “likely to be at risk for acute and potentially chronic respiratory effects”. The report confirmed that levels of asbestos, a known cause of mesothelioma, and other toxic substances remained dangerously high for several days after 9/11.
There is also evidence that those materials are still in the lungs of those who inhaled them that day. When a team of New York pathologists examined the lung tissue of seven 9/11 responders who had developed serious lung problems in 2010, they found chrysotile asbestos, along with aluminum and magnesium silicates, small shards of glass and carbon nanotubes. Mesothelioma risk increases the longer asbestos remains in the lungs.
Respiratory problems like bronchitis and asthma had begun to show up among the exposed within weeks after the attack, but a 2006 report from researchers at Mount Sinai Medical Center warned that the long-term consequences of exposure are likely to include late-emerging diseases such as cancer. A more recent study of firefighters who were on the scene on 9/11 appears to bear that out. The firefighters had a higher incidence of all types of cancer. Although the study did not single out mesothelioma as being unusually common, its close association with asbestos and its 10 to 40 year latency period make it likely that the number of cases of mesothelioma among New Yorkers exposed on 9/11 will rise.
~ article from Surviving Mesothelioma and Cancer Monthly, Sept. 2011
Asbestos Law Firm Promotes Mesothelioma Awareness Day September 26th
Clapper, Patti, Schweizer & Mason, one of the only law firms in the nation solely dedicated to helping individuals who have been harmed by asbestos, endorses the decision of the U.S. Congress to dedicate September 26th as National Mesothelioma Awareness Day. With this being the first officially designated year, CPSM also seeks to promote Mesothelioma Awareness Day in hopes of raising public awareness about this deadly but preventable rare type of cancer and to encourage donations for research aimed at finding a cure.
According to a Work Related Disease Surveillance Report published in 2007 by the Center For Disease Control (“CDC”), in conjunction with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (“NIOSH”), each year nearly 3,000 Americans are diagnosed with this preventable disease. The disease, caused by exposure to asbestos, is a type of cancer which attacks the mesothelium – the soft tissue which lines the internal body cavities and surrounds vital organs like the heart, lungs, and abdomen.
This year marks a very special time for this disease. Not only has the Centers for Disease Control predicted that after 2011 new diagnosis rates of mesothelioma should begin to decrease here in the states, scientists have discovered a rare genetic mutation which explains why some people are more susceptible to contracting asbestos cancer than others.
The need for more research into where this disease comes from, how it progresses, and how we can stop it is ever-present. With cutting-edge work being done in top-tier laboratories like the University of Hawaii Cancer Center and the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, finally getting a handle on mesothelioma is more feasible than ever before.
Scientist are also pursuing gene therapy, engineered viruses and bacteria, and even tinkering with the human immune system in order to create better treatments for this disease. Although some research has led to successful discoveries, mesothelioma remains a clear and present danger.
Conservative estimates put nearly 1.3 million construction and general industry worker at risk even today, decades after the manufacture and use of asbestos products was severely restricted in the United States. Existing homes, hospitals, and school built before the 1980′s ban may still house unsafe levels of asbestos insulation, floor and ceiling tiles, wallboard, joint compound, and adhesives.
It is just as important as it ever was that construction workers, contractors, electricians, plumbers, and home owners get educated on how to identify materials potentially contaminated with asbestos and what to do if such materials are present.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency has set up a special section about asbestos and the danger it causes on their website: www.EPA.gov.
As there is still no cure, nor even any effective long-term treatment options, available for sufferers of mesothelioma, education and prevention are key in minimizing the impact this deadly disease has on our way of life.
Join us this September 26th in raising awareness, giving support, and bringing hope to those diagnosed with this incurable cancer.
~ Org. seen at PRWeb Sept. 2011