Mesothelioma Cause Reconfirmed
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IRAC) reconfirmed this week that all commercial asbestos fibers cause lung cancer and mesothelioma. The agency also reconfirmed that the toxic mineral causes laryngeal cancer and newly confirmed that sufficient evidence exists to state that asbestos exposure causes ovarian cancer.
Dr. Richard Lemen, retired Assistant Surgeon General of the United States and Deputy Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, recognizes this new confirmation as the beginning of a “new chapter in the prevention of asbestos-related cancers.”
According to IRAC’s mission statement, the agency exists to identify the causes of cancer “so that preventive measures may be adopted against them.”
“The confirmation by IARC – the world’s leading cancer research agency – that all forms of asbestos, including its most commonly used form of asbestos chrysotile, cause lung cancer, laryngeal cancer, and mesothelioma, leave no doubt that the prevailing medical evidence is irrefutable as to asbestos’ carcinogenicity. The new findings that there is sufficient evidence that asbestos also causes ovarian cancer will have far reaching implications to all women exposed to asbestos,” said Lemen.
Lemen was involved in the agency’s first confirmation in 1976 that stated all forms of asbestos caused lung cancer and mesothelioma, a rare, aggressive cancer. Mesothelioma symptoms typically do not surface until 20 to 50 years after initial exposure to asbestos occurs, which often allows the cancer to enter later stages of development. Approximately 2,000 to 3,000 Americans are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year, comprising 3 percent of all cancer diagnoses.
The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), an independent volunteer organization, expressed gratitude over the reconfirmation. Linda Reinstein, Executive Director and Co-Founder of ADAO stated, “We applaud these timely findings of the IRAC. The more knowledge we have about asbestos dangers, the more power we have to effectively fight this deadly mineral and some day end its lethal abilities.”
ADAO is holding its fifth annual Asbestos Awareness Conference and Remembrance Brunch in Manhattan Beach, California March 27 – 29. The organization has been educating asbestos victims and concerned citizens about the dangers of asbestos since 2004.
Additional information about mesothelioma and the causes of this cancer may be found through the Mesothelioma Cancer Center.
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This entry was posted on Friday, March 27th, 2009 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Asbestos Exposure, California, Mesothelioma. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Responses are currently closed, but you trackback from your own site.
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