While a rare disorder in the general population, mesothelioma is not rare among individuals exposed to asbestos. There are two to three thousand new diagnoses of the cancer every year.
Exposure to asbestos is the only confirmed cause of mesothelioma, and most people diagnosed with the disease were exposed to asbestos in the workplace and were never told of its dangers or given proper protective gear. Others were exposed through family members who brought asbestos home on their clothes or through home renovation projects. Unlike many other predominantly pulmonary-related cancers, cigarette smoking has no known causative effect on its incidence, although asbestos workers who smoke do have a much greater likelihood to develop lung cancer, even more so than regular smokers who don’t work with asbestos.
One of the most difficult aspects of the disease to come to terms with is its long latency period, which is the period of time between first exposure to asbestos and the onset of the disease. Mesothelioma can develop anywhere between 10 to 70 years after the initial exposure.
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