The lung diseasesasbestosis and mesothelioma have been proven for decades to be a result ofasbestos exposure.  Yet, asbestoscontinues to be mined, and employers still fail to protect workers from thedangers of asbestos.  Faint warnings tothe public have been made barely audible, and a deadly global health epidemicis looming on the horizon.



 

Asbestosis and mesothelioma are the subjects of 21^stcentury international reports warning international officials, advocacyworkers, and the general public of an impending epidemic of these twodevastating diseases.  Asbestosis and mesothelioma,which are caused by exposure to asbestos, take decades to surface symptoms, andthe retired workers of yesteryear's thriving asbestos industries are beginningto suffer from asbestos related diseases today.  

 

In countries like Brazil, workers suffered decades undercorrupt politics, medical care was discouraged, workers were randomly dismissedfrom employment, and diagnostic tests were not made available to support anyidentification or claim for asbestosis or mesothelioma.  It is only recently that unions protectingworkers have surfaced, but for thousands of asbestos workers, it is too late toavoid succumbing to the harsh lung disease of asbestosis or the fatal cancer ofmesothelioma.

 

 As workers andinnocent home dwellers continue to be exposed to asbestos, the death estimatesdue to asbestos related diseases will continue to reach into the next halfcentury.  Factories in China spewasbestos from their factories into neighboring cities.  In Africa, a state of emergency has been requestedin asbestos filled territories where hundred-mile stretches are filled with residentsliving, working and sleeping while surrounded by airborne asbestos fibers.   

                                                                                                                     

In India, the European Asbestos Removal Association(EARA) issued a 2008 report titled ?India's Asbestos Time Bomb? which warns ofIndia's future burden of caring for tens of thousands of asbestosis andmesothelioma patients as a result of India's infatuation with asbestosproducts.   In this asbestos removal report, comparisonsare made between the export levels of India and the UK.  In just two decades, India's asbestos importssurpassed the levels that the UK used in their entire industrial history.  The UK is now facing record levels ofoccupational disease, with thousands dying from mesothelioma every year.  Despite the UK's forewarning of the future,India continues to import massive tons of asbestos products annually, andcorporations with significant monetary interest encourage unsuspectingconsumers to embrace the use of asbestos products.

 

Even with indiscriminate medical records that deflate theactual deaths due to asbestosis and mesothelioma, the World Health Organizationestimates that asbestosis and mesothelioma will be responsible for 90,000deaths around the world in a single year. As long as asbestos continues to be mined, imported and exported ? thenumbers will continue to rise over the next century.

 

Asbestosisand mesothelioma are not diseases that are easily recognized by physicians orthe lay citizen.   The public must bemade aware of the dangers of working with, and living with, asbestos madeproducts.  Scientists and manufacturersmust race to discover the economic answer to replace asbestos products with asafer alternative. But with or without change, the next decade will surface theconsequences of haphazard occupational healthcare as the children of tomorrowcare for the asbestos workers of today