Mariana Gutierrez
December 10, 2012
Senior Project
Research Paper
Asbestos Poisoning
The definition of asbestos poisoning is simply, a chronic inflammatory and
fibrotic medical condition affecting the parenchyma tissue of the lungs. It is also known
as a natural material invented of tiny fibers that are used as thermal insulation. Inhalation
of asbestos fibers can lead to some of the symptoms such as asbestosis, mesothelioma
and lung cancer.
When we talk about asbestos poisoning the first thing a person thinks about is
illness and the severe affects towards the human being. It all depends how severe the
asbestos poisoning has developed in your insides. It is broaden all over the following
places in the world, but the one that has been most compacted is India. As BMJ website
states, “Many thousands of people in India suffer from lung cancer diseases caused by
exposure to asbestos”, however, the only reason why they are impacted is because most
of the asbestos is being imported from Canada and Russia that have came along and
affect thousands of people in India.
The most common effect that asbestos poisoning can cause are deadly conditions
that are seen in the beginning of the developing of asbestos poisoning mesothelioma an
aggressive cancer and lastly, lung cancer an advanced stage of mesothelioma. Those
effects are usually seen in matter of years. Some people don’t know the have lung cancer
until the poisoning has been mounting for more than 15 or 30 years. The few ways you
know you have been conflicted with asbestos poisoning at an early stage are the
symptoms. Some of the main symptoms are, wheezing, hoarseness, massive amount of
weight loss, and fatigue or anemia. The specific asbestos poisoning symptoms that are
specific towards lung cancer or mesothelioma are the following, chest pain, bowel
obstruction and swelling of the neck and face. Lastly, if you are contaminated with the
following clues indicating asbestosis are loss of appetite, a dry crackling sound, and at
last a sound sensation in the lungs while you are inhaling and exhaling. If you are
receiving any of these symptoms, be sure to contact your doctor as soon as possible. The
more you wait, the more you are risking your life.
The common way to have a high risk of being involved with asbestos poisoning
are people that work in the industries. People that have jobs such as automotive, fire
fighting, railroads, metal working and lastly, plumbing are jobs that risk their
uncontaminated lungs just to beautify the city or homes. The reason why those specific
jobs have been contaminated with asbestos poisoning for many years are for the reason
that there’s many chemicals that are infected with many things that can have the risk of
pollute your insides.
There are countless treatments for mesothelioma and lung cancer that are caused
by asbestos poisoning. Scientists are still researching for more treatments, but the
recently ones have established have unfortunately been unsuccessful in expanding the
victims lives. The most common treatments to keep mesothelioma at not risky level are
going through surgery and chemotherapy. Surgery has been the most thriving form of
treatment because the surgeon removes cancerous tissue that has the insides of the body
affected. In order for the surgery to be effective, it needs to be detected at an early stage.
Due to the fact, the more a person waits, the less chance of the surgery being successful.
As I was researching more about treatments, mesothelioma is often discovered when it’s
too late for the main reason that the victim shows no symptoms which makes them
believe they are fine and healthy.
Chemotherapy is involved with drugs design to kill the entire cancerous cell in
your body; before it is too late to stop all cancerous cells it is safer if each victim takes
full on responsibility of the effects of the drugs the doctor is prescribing the victim. For
the reasons being adverse side affects, because the drugs that chemotherapy are not only
killing cancerous but also healthy cells. The drugs that are included during chemotherapy
are Cisplatin, Vinorelbine, Doxorubicin, and Gemcitabine. The newer chemotherapy
techniques are on the progress; one such technique that is most commonly known is
heated chemotherapy, chemotherapy is needed once the post surgery is officially over
and done. Then that’s when the drugs come in handy, and are given to the patient to have
a more successful surgery.
Radiation therapy, it is used to destroy or to control cancerous cells with the help
of ionizing radiation. There are many methods that involved in radiation therapy. The
most common ones are called the external beam radiation; the beam radiation occurs as
tumors are attack with beams of radiation to kill cancer cells. Another method during the
radiation therapy is known as Brach therapy, this method is concentrated to deliver with
several tiny radioactive rods, which are surrounded in the tumors. Furthermore, this
therapy is to provide any relief from the cancers symptoms for the patient. With this
therapy, it can help the patients’ life to extend to a longer time, and not have so much
pain while the person that has cancer pain will not have so much pain.
Some of the challenges that citizens in the central valley face and are founded
tainted with asbestos poisoning are keeping themselves away from it. By building an
asbestos containment is the first step in controlling it away. Then, by enclosing the
contained area with some thick plastic sheets will be able to protect the surrounding
rooms from all of the asbestos dust particles. By having a specialist to help seal doors,
windows, ceilings, floors, might be the best idea while trying to keep away asbestos from
wherever. El Dorado Hills, positioned in Sacramento, has been on the big rise, resulting
more asbestos fibers in the air.
Asbestos poisoning is known as a long-lasting inflammatory and medical
condition affecting the parenchyma tissue of the lungs. Inhalation of asbestos fibers can
lead to some of the enduring effects that are asbestosis, mesothelioma and lung cancer. If
you are able to relate to any of the symptoms that I have stated in the previous paragraphs
please be sure to contact your doctor as soon as you can.
Works Cited
"Asbestos Poisoning Symptoms." Online Posting. - Mesothelioma, Lung Cancer,
Asbestosis, Effects of Exposure, Testing, Treatment,. N.p., 2012. Web. 10 Dec. 2012.
"Asbestos Removal Services in Fresno and the Central Valley." Asbestos Removal
Services in Fresno CA. Brunna Is Licensed, Certified. Ed. 2012 Brunna Enterprises.
Brunna Enterprises, 2012. Web. 10 Dec. 2012..
EARLY, JAMES F. "Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance." Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance.
N.p., 2012. Web.