Mesothelioma Exposure

Exposure to Natural Rocks Can Cause Mesothelioma

November 3, 2005

A new study, released in the October 15, 2005 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, says that living near naturally occurring asbestos found in rocks can increase the chances of developing malignant mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is an often-deadly form of cancer related to asbestos exposure.

The findings add fuel to the fire that many have been claiming for years: asbestos exposure can cause mesothelioma, even from a distance. That claim is currently being argued across the country in thousands of lawsuits that critics claim cannot be made because of the lack of supposed evidence between the link.

The study comes as a wake-up call that doctors like Marc B. Schenker of UC Davis Medical Center, director of the study, have been postulating for years. The research says that it is now time for the government to address the asbestos-cancer link and start to help out.

The article stated that California has more naturally occurring asbestos in rocks than any other state in the country, and that the prevalence of them is spread over the state with great gaps in between them. The study's participants included 2908 Californians with malignant mesothelioma and 2908 Californians with pancreatic cancer who made up the control group. The study followed these patients over a period of ten years.

For every six miles farther away from asbestos containing rocks the patients lived, their risk of developing mesothelioma decreased some 6.3%. People who lived near the rocks had a much higher rate of cancer development. Findings were adjusted to account for occupational exposure, age, and sex.

Asbestos fiber exposure can cause tumors in a lung membrane eventually spreading along the membranes of the abdomen. Mesothelioma is a rare cancer and takes about 30 to 40 years to develop.

The new study is a very important breakthrough in mesothelioma links to asbestos because no study before ever took into account the naturally occurring asbestos versus the occupational or building material exposure to the element. Other studies included subjects who were people that lived near asbestos sources but also may have had contact with asbestos at home via building materials or at work. The measure of cumulative exposure was never so specifically detailed as it was in this latest report.

The latest study shows that there is a clear link between mesothelioma development and asbestos exposure and that even long-distance exposure can cause the cancer development over long periods of time. There is a risk of mesothelioma development, therefore, even if a person is not in direct contact with asbestos, and just lives near an asbestos containing lot that was not properly cleaned, or an asbestos containing building nearby.

For more information on asbestos related illnesses, please contact us to confer with an attorney.

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