Clapper, Patti, Schweizer and Mason

Asbestosis is a condition in which the soft tissue of the lungs and airways becomes scarred over time due to asbestos exposure.  This scarring can lead to life threatening shortness of breath and low blood oxygen counts as well as pain, suffering, and massive expenses.  It is just one of the diseases associated with asbestos, the most infamous of which is mesothelioma. 

Doctors have wondered for years why certain people exposed to asbestos develop mesothelioma while others develop asbestosis. A new study concerned with occupational exposure to asbestos in Great Britain, specifically England and Wales, has discovered that the age at which patients are exposed in addition to the amounts of asbestos with which they are exposed both play major roles in determining which disease the patients are likely to succumb to. 

The study was created to examine the nature of asbestos disease, including mesothelioma, in response to a stable death rate from 1991 through 2001 even decades after asbestos use was outlawed.  Great Britain has the world’s highest per-capita incidence of mesothelioma and other asbestos diseases, partly because the population is relatively small but mostly because the post-war era rebuilding which occurred in the island nation utilized tons of asbestos materials. 

The study, which examined nearly 34,000 mesothelioma cases resulting in death and over 5,000 asbestosis deaths, discovered that heavy exposure earlier in life tended to lead to asbestosis while exposure later in life tended to lead to mesothelioma. 

The cases were collated using age as a key factor and researchers discovered that most of the asbestosis cases resulting in death occurred in patients born between 1924 and 1938.  Most of the mesothelioma cases resulting in death occurred in patients born between 1939 and 1943.  It is important to note that these dates correlated to the specific population of the study and have no relation to the rates of asbestos exposure before or after the time period in question.  In fact, some of the earliest known asbestos related deaths and health claims were reported back in the 1920s and asbestos exposure continues to be a huge problem all across the world.

Whether asbestosis or mesothelioma, both asbestos diseases are deadly.  No amount of asbestos exposure should ever be considered safe and any worksite contamination should be reported immediately. 

Source: Darnton, A et al, “Mortality from asbestosis and mesothelioma in Britain by birth cohort”, October 2012, Occupational Medicine (London), pp. 549-552.