MESOTHELIOMA

Asbestos is the most common cause of the mesothelioma. Up to nine out of ten cases of mesothelioma are caused by exposure to asbestos. Asbestos is a normal ore, extracted the rock found in much country. It is composed of the tiny fibres which are as strong as steel but can be woven like cotton and are of high strength to heat and of the chemicals.

During the Sixties the first link defined between the mesothelioma and asbestos was established. In last asbestos was imported with RU in great quantity. It was employed in the construction industry, naval construction and in apparatuses electric household appliances. Asbestos was very employed usually out of materials of insulation, such as the slab insulating from amosite, and construction materials, including the asbestos cement.

When asbestos is disturbed or damaged, it releases the tiny fibres which can be breathed in the lungs. The asbestos fibres are very good and, once breathed inside, they can transform their manner into smaller air routes of the lung, thus they cannot be breathed or coughed outside. Once the fibres are in the lungs, the body 'the mechanism of defence of S tries to break up them and to remove them, which leads to the ignition in fabric of lung.

The asbestos fibres can also penetrate by fabric of lung to arrange in the pl�vre (the membrane around the lung). On much of years they can make develop the mesothelioma or other lung diseases.

Asbestos fibres can also be swallowed, and some of fibres can stick in the digestive system. They can then enter the membrane which raye the abdomen (the peritoneum), where they cause the ignition.

The people most probably to be exposed to asbestos include:

* hard-working of construction
* plumbers
* electricians
* ironmongers
* manufacturers of ships
* working of demolition
* people who worked in other places where asbestos was present and
* people who lived close with the asbestos factories.

The family members of the people who worked with asbestos and brought the house of dust on their clothing also sometimes developed the mesothelioma.

There are three types of asbestos: blue, brown and white. Blue and brown asbestos are the types most generally dependent with the mesothelioma. They very seldom are now employed and cannot be imported in RU. At the origin, white asbestos was thought not to be dangerous but the recent studies now proved that it is also harmful.

In the Eighties, imports of blue and brown asbestos in RU were stopped, and in 1999 the importation and the use of all asbestos were prohibited. However, while the mesothelioma develops so much slowly, it is estimated it that from here 2015 roughly 3000 people will be diagnosed every year with the mesothelioma. The number of people who develop the mesothelioma will then start to reduce every year.

The mesothelioma usually does not develop until many years after exposure to asbestos. That can take any time from 10 to 60 years, although the average is approximately 30 to 40 years after exposure to asbestos.