Asbestos is an insulation material that has been used in buildings for many years now. It wasn’t initially known that asbestos could be damaging to people’s health but since this has been discovered, asbestos has been banned in most countries. Although it has been banned in new buildings it is still present in a lot of buildings built before the year 2000 and so there is still a health risk. There are a number of diseases which asbestos can cause and the only real way of preventing them entirely is to completely avoid exposure to the material.
Illness from asbestos is very serious and some of the diseases can actually be fatal. Asbestosis is one of these potentially fatal diseases and like most other asbestos related diseases it comes from inhaling the dust which comes from asbestos. The walls of the lungs are made up of alveoli and the dust settles on these causing them to become damaged and scarred. When this happens the lungs become less effective at oxygenating the blood and the heart has to work harder thus becoming more susceptible to failure.
Prolonged exposure to asbestos can also cause cancer in many different areas. A person who smokes and is exposed to asbestos is even more at risk also. The larynx is one area where asbestos can causer cancer but it is also believed it can cause cancer of the lung, ovaries, rectum, colon and the gut.
Mesothelioma is a disease which is specific to both the lungs and also asbestos exposure. It is a form of cancer and is very fast acting once someone has it. In most cases sufferers of the disease die within six to twelve months whilst some might get as long as eighteen months to live.
There are other diseases too and although they are not deadly themselves, they can lead to deadly diseases and are also extremely painful. Pleural thickening is where the walls of the lung harden and make breathing extremely difficult. Pleural plaques are the scar tissue areas of the lung which are very painful and also untreatable.
Asbestos is only one of the many substances that cause industrial illness.