Health Hazards of Asbestos
Lung Cancer
Lung cancer causes the largest number of deaths in the U.S. related to asbestos exposure. People who work in the mining, milling, manufacturing of asbestos, and those who use asbestos and its products are more likely to develop lung cancer than the general population.
Scars in Lung Tissue - CDC
The most common symptoms of lung cancer are coughing and a change in breathing. Other symptoms include shortness of breath, persistent chest pains, hoarseness, and anemia.
Mesothelioma
Epidemiologic evidence has increasingly shown that all asbestos fiber types, including the most commonly used form of asbestos, chrysotile, causes mesothelioma in humans.
Mesothelioma
Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer due to asbestos fibers lodging in the thin lining of the lungs causing tumors to grow in the lung, chest, abdomen, and heart. This disease may not show up until many years after asbestos exposure.
It is important to know the following things about exposure to asbestos:
- Airborne levels of asbestos are never to exceed legal worker exposure limits.
- There is no "safe" level of asbestos exposure for any type of asbestos fiber.
- Asbestos exposures as short in duration as a few days have caused mesothelioma in humans.
- Every occupational exposure to asbestos contributes to the risk of getting an asbestos related disease.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
1-7. Which type of health hazard causes the largest number of deaths in the United States related to asbestos exposure?
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