Asbestos is a type of mineral that has been commonly used for commercial purposes and has been categorized into two main types, serpentine and amphibole. Although six types of naturally-occurring minerals are officially recognized by the U.S Bureau of Mines as asbestos, more than 100 are listed as “asbestos-like.” The Environmental Protection Agency has identified amosite, crocidolite, tremolite, anthophyllite and actinolite as the different classes of asbestos.
Doctors and scientists claim that every form of asbestos exposure could lead to severe health conditions such as lung cancer, asbestosis, mesothelioma and many others. Almost 95% of the asbestos used in the construction of buildings before the 1980s consisted of chrysotile as the most widespread form of asbestos. Scientific studies also show that prolonged exposure to the delicate asbestos fibers prove to be hazardous to health.
Approximately 52 countries worldwide have put a ban on the use of asbestos. Countries that have not enacted a ban use massive amounts of asbestos every year. A research bythe U.S. Geological Study (USGS) in 2009 showed asbestos production of 2 million tons during the late 1990s.
Russia is the largest asbestos producing country in the world. It also supplies asbestos to the developing countries that are not under the consideration of the asbestos regulation. According to the USGS study, countries that are the major consumers of asbestos include Colombia, Brazil, China, Canada, Russia, India and Kazakhstan. In addition, Canada is a major manufacturer of chrysotile asbestos, but the country uses it in a limited manner.
The United States consumed approximate asbestos quantity of 15,000 metric tons in 1999. A large number of major health organizations regard asbestos as an acknowledged human carcinogen. The first organization to distinguish the potential detrimental effects of asbestos exposure in 1977 was the International Agency for Research on Cancer,which is a fraction of the World Health Organization. To add to your surprise, many countries across the globe still permit the production and use of asbestos.
A majority of the medical studies have been aiming to find out the asbestos source that causes toxic effects in the body. In the year 2003, researchers from the Vermont Medical Center conducted a study named “Multiple Roles of Oxidants in the Pathogenesis of Asbestos-Induced Diseases”, which helped them to find out that the oxidants present in the popular asbestos forms such as amosite and crocidolite have damaging effects on the human DNA. They also found that these oxidants contributed to lung injuries related to asbestos and found excessive antioxidant enzymes parameters in human cells.
The National Cancer Institute and the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation, conducted a study in 2010 that found a protein named HMGB1 playing an important role for the development of Mesothelioma. They found HMGB1 or High Mobility Group protein B1 in higher levels among the people who were exposed to asbestos. The researchers found that the inflammatory reactions that cause the growth of tumors are the results of exposure to asbestos. They also reached a conclusion that the asbestos fibers when present in a human body kill the cells in the course of “Programmed Cell Necrosis”, which is also common as cell suicide. They then stated that interference in the HMGB1 and the asbestos fiber reaction could decrease the process of cancer tumor development.
As the body is incapable of throwing off the fibers that once enter the body, high concentrations of asbestos fibers could possibly cause lesions. The cells in mesothelium are unable to repair these lesions and thus, expire in massive numbers. These genomic changes due to asbestos fibers finally lead to huge chromosomal depletion that associate to the cell destruction. Therefore, tumors grow massively as these asbestos fibers cannot be removed from the body.
Occupational exposure is the major reason behind majority of the asbestos related disorders that arise every year. People in the Armed Forces form a large percentage of asbestos affected individuals. Apparently a high death rate of the workers relate with the industries that have an apparent history of asbestos working procedures.
World Health Organization found out that approximately 125 million people are at high risk of asbestos exposure at their respective workplaces, of which over 107,000 workers across the globe die due to diseases related to asbestos exposure each year.
The estimations of the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health(NIOSH) state that, out of every 1,000 workers exposed to asbestos, two deaths will be due to asbestosis and five deaths will occur due to lung cancer. However, these mortality rates could vary in different industries. The occurrences that finally diagnosed Mesothelioma in one of Virginia’s ship building sites were seven times more as compared to the national rates. The most common industries that manufactured or produced products by utilizing asbestos include construction sites, power plants and shipyards.
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