Mesothelioma – Prevention Measures

Mesothelioma is a cancer that affects the mesothelium due to exposure to asbestos and figures reveal that more than 2000 cases are registered every year.  If you want to prevent mesothelioma, you have to ensure that the root cause of the disease, which is asbestos is totally banned.  Since most of the registered cases of this disease are linked to occupation, prevention must begin by isolating the sources of asbestos and eliminating them.
Some high risk occupations need to be particularly aware of the consequences of this exposure to asbestos and should take adequate precautions.  They are painters, brick layers, drywall contractors, miners and mechanics.  Other occupations include those in the manufacture of fireproofing, plumbing, floor tiles and cement.  Many personnel in the rail yards, ship yards and oil refineries are equally at risk of asbestos exposure.  In short, people in the building industry need to be very aware and careful about this hazard that they are continuously exposed to and need to take not only adequate precautions but also conduct regular check ups.
Workers in these fields are duly covered under strict workplace regulations and the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration have put in place some stringent rules to ensure the safety and well being of these workers.  However, some fibers of asbestos may still stick itself to hair, skin and the clothing and when this is brought home; family members are also put at risk.  Federal laws thus mandate that certain precautions are followed by the workmen prior to leaving for their homes such as:
•    Taking a shower
•    Not taking work related clothing home
•    Ensuring that the workmen change to street clothing ahead of leaving the place of work
•    Making sure that the work related clothing is properly washed at the place of work and not taken home
The above measures have ensured the control of mesothelioma spreading through the secondary route to the family members of the workmen.

Mesothelioma – What is it and how is it diagnosed?

Mesothelioma is a very rare kind of cancer that affects the mesothelium, which itself is the protective shield casing most of the body organs. The primary cause of this disease is exposure to asbestos and the most common organ affected is the pleura of the lungs. Though it is generally assumed that smoking which often causes lung cancer may also be causing mesothelioma, it has been proved that smoking has no role to play in the development of mesothelioma.

The symptoms may not be noticed till about 25 to 30 years after the asbestos exposure, but they can be very disturbing. Typical symptoms are accumulation of fluid in the lungs leading to breathing problems, coughing and pain in the chest. Besides pleural mesothelioma, another condition called peritoneal mesothelioma which is a condition affecting the peritoneum can cause abrupt weight loss, anemia and a high level of clotting. If this is not treated on time, it can progress upwards and result in the neck getting swollen apart from the patient experiencing difficulty in swallowing.

It is often difficult to immediately diagnose this cancer as the patient may exhibit symptoms common to other disorders and it does require investigation at the right time to identify mesothelioma. If a patient has had prior exposure to asbestos, specific chest and lung X-rays are taken to identify any pleural thickening that may have occurred. In that event, a CAT scan as well as an MRI is advised to detect any growth tissues in the pleura and if that is also positive, a biopsy is done to ascertain the presence of any cancerous cells in the pleural fluid. As far as peritoneal mesothelioma is concerned, only a laparoscopy can detect any cancerous cells in the abdomen.

Once diagnosis is complete, the examining doctor identifies the stage of cancer and this is again categorized as localized if it is just restricted to the surface of the membrane and advanced if it has managed to make further inroads into the body.