THE RICHEST DISEASE

2009-04-17T12:21:00.000-07:00

MY BELOVED FRIENDS, I KNOW RIGHT FROM THE TOPIC ABOVE WHICH YOU ARE BEEN ATTRACTED TO THE RICHEST DISEASE,IT IS A DEADLY DISEASE BUT THE FUNNEST PART OF IT IS THAT ONE CAN BECOME RICH THROUGH IT......WHAT DO I MEAN THIS VERY DISEASE THE GOVERNMENT AND SOME PRIVATE COMPANIES ARE MUCH INTERESTED ON IT WOOOOH THAT SOUND GREAT A DISEASE THAT CAN MAKE ONE RICH........GOVERNMENT ARE REALLY PAYING MANY PEOPLE THAT ARE VICTIM TO THIS DISEASE THIS ARTICLE WILL EDUCATE YOU MORE ABOUT THIS DISEASE BEWARE AND BE WARN.

MESOTHELIOMA

Is a rare and virulent form of cancer that affects the lining of the lung, lining of the abdominal cavity or lining around the heart. Mesothelioma is caused by exposure to asbestos, and occurs in those who have breathed in asbestos fiber, in many cases 20 to 50 or more years ago. Some were exposed on their jobs; others were exposed secondarily through family members who without their knowledge, brought fiber home on their work clothes or on their hair or skin. Despite the serious nature of the disease, there is hope. Every year, doctors and scientists worldwide are developing new treatments and making new discoveries that help to improve the chance of survival and the patient’s quality of life. This website, Mesothelioma International, helps patients and their family members connect with the resources they need to be informed and make the best decisions on their potential treatment and care. The mesothelium is a membrane that covers and protects most of the internal organs of the body. It is composed of two layers of cells: One layer immediately surrounds the organ; the other forms a sac around it. The mesothelium produces a lubricating fluid that is released between these layers, allowing moving organs (such as the beating heart and the expanding and contracting lungs) to glide easily against adjacent structures. The mesothelium has different names, depending on its location in the body. The peritoneum is the mesothelial tissue that covers most of the organs in the abdominal cavity. The pleura is the membrane that surrounds the lungs and lines the wall of the chest cavity. The pericardium covers and protects the heart. The mesothelial tissue surrounding the male internal reproductive organs is called the tunica vaginalis testis. The tunica serosa uteri covers the internal reproductive organs in women.

Signs and symptoms

Symptoms of mesothelioma may not appear until 20 to 50 years after exposure to asbestos. Shortness of breath, cough, and pain in the chest due to an accumulation of fluid in the pleural space are often symptoms of pleural mesothelioma.

Symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma include weight loss and cachexia, abdominal swelling and pain due to ascites (a buildup of fluid in the abdominal cavity). Other symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma may include bowel obstruction, blood clotting abnormalities, anemia, and fever. If the cancer has spread beyond the mesothelium to other parts of the body, symptoms may include pain, trouble swallowing, or swelling of the neck or face.

These symptoms may be caused by mesothelioma or by other, less serious conditions.

Mesothelioma that affects the pleura can cause these signs and symptoms:

chest wall pain
pleural effusion, or fluid surrounding the lung
shortness of breath
fatigue or anemia
wheezing, hoarseness, or cough
blood in the sputum (fluid) coughed up (hemoptysis)

In severe cases, the person may have many tumor masses. The individual may develop a pneumothorax, or collapse of the lung. The disease may metastasize, or spread, to other parts of the body.

Tumors that affect the abdominal cavity often do not cause symptoms until they are at a late stage. Symptoms include:

abdominal pain
ascites, or an abnormal buildup of fluid in the abdomen
a mass in the abdomen
problems with bowel function
weight loss

In severe cases of the disease, the following signs and symptoms may be present:

blood clots in the veins, which may cause thrombophlebitis
disseminated intravascular coagulation, a disorder causing severe bleeding in many body organs
jaundice, or yellowing of the eyes and skin
low blood sugar level
pleural effusion
pulmonary emboli, or blood clots in the arteries of the lungs
severe ascites

A mesothelioma does not usually spread to the bone, brain, or adrenal glands. Pleural tumors are usually found only on one side of the lungs.

CAUSE OF MESOTHELOMA

Asbestos is the most common cause of mesothelioma. Up to nine out of ten cases of mesothelioma are caused by exposure to asbestos. Asbestos is a natural mineral, mined from rock found in many countries. It is made up of tiny fibres that are as strong as steel but can be woven like cotton and are highly resistant to heat and chemicals.

During the 1960s the first definite link between mesothelioma and asbestos was made. In the ship-building and in household appliances. Asbestos was very widely used in insulation materials, such as amosite insulation board, and building materials, including asbestos cement.

Then asbestos is disturbed or damaged, it releases tiny fibres that can be breathed into the lungs. Asbestos fibres are very fine and, when breathed in, they can make their way into the smallest airways of the lung, so they cannot be breathed or coughed out. Once the fibres are in the lungs, the body's defence mechanism tries to break them down and remove them, which leads to inflammation in the lung tissue.

The asbestos fibres can also penetrate through the lung tissue to settle in the pleura (the membrane around the lung). Over many years they can cause mesothelioma or other lung diseases to develop.

Asbestos fibres can also be swallowed, and some of the fibres can stick in the digestive system. They can then move into the membrane that lines the abdomen (the peritoneum), where they cause inflammation.

The people most likely to have been exposed to asbestos include:

* construction workers

* plumbers

* electricians

* boilermakers

* shipbuilders

* demolition workers

* people who worked in other places where asbestos was present and

* people who lived near to asbestos factories.

Family members of people who worked with asbestos and brought the dust home on their clothes have also sometimes developed mesothelioma.

There are three types of asbestos: blue, brown and white. Blue and brown asbestos are the types most commonly linked with mesothelioma. They are now very rarely used and cannot be imported into the UK. Originally, white asbestos was thought not to be dangerous but recent studies have now shown that it is also harmful.

In the 1980s, imports of blue and brown asbestos into the UK were stopped, and in 1999 the importation and use of all asbestos was banned. However, as mesothelioma develops so slowly, it is estimated that by 2015 approximately 3000 people will be diagnosed with mesothelioma each year. The number of people who develop mesothelioma will then start to reduce each year.

Mesothelioma does not usually develop until many years after exposure to asbestos. It can take any time from 10 to 60 years, although the average is about 30 to 40 years after exposure to asbestos.

Occasionally, mesothelioma develops in people who have never been exposed to asbestos. The other causes of the disease are not fully understood, but in rare cases the development of mesothelioma has been linked to exposure to radiation.

Research has not found any evidence that smoking increases a person's risk of developing mesothelioma. It is also thought that exposure to other building materials such as fibreglass does not increase the risk.

Mesothelioma is not contagious and cannot be passed on to other people. It is not caused by inherited faulty genes and so family members do not have an increased risk of developing it, unless they have been in contact with asbestos.

THE HISTORY OF THIS DEADLY DISEASE

Asbestos use dates back to 4000 BC when it was used in wicks for lamps and candles. In the 1890s, asbestos, which previously had few industrial uses, becomes a raw material for large manufacturing industries, exposing large numbers of workers to asbestos dust for the first time. Asbestos-caused disease often develops decades after a person was first exposed. As a result, it was not until the early 1900s that large numbers of workers developed symptoms.
1890s - Asbestos, which previously had few industrial uses, becomes a raw material for large manufacturing industries, exposing large numbers of workers to asbestos dust for the first time. Asbestos-caused disease often develops decades after a person was first exposed. As a result, it was not until the early 1900s that large numbers of workers developed symptoms.

1918 - A Prudential Insurance Company official in 1918 made a note that insurance companies would not cover asbestos workers because of the "health-injurious conditions of the industry." The first known asbestos lawsuit was in 1929 in New Jersey.

1930 - Major asbestos company Johns-Manville produced a report in 1930 intended for internal company use only about medical reports of asbestos worker fatalities. Just two years later, a letter from the U.S. Bureau of Mines to another manufacturer, Eagle-Picher, stated "It is now known that asbestos dust is one of the most dangerous dusts to which man is exposed."

1932 - Letter from U.S. Bureau of Mines to asbestos manufacturer Eagle-Picher states: "It is now known that asbestos dust is one of the most dangerous dusts to which man is exposed."

1933 - Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. doctors find that 29 percent of workers in a Johns-Manville plant have asbestosis. Johns-Manville officials settle lawsuits by 11 employees with asbestosis on the condition that the employees' lawyer agree to never again "directly or indirectly participate in the bringing of new actions against the Corporation."

1934 - Officials of two large asbestos companies, Johns-Manville and Raybestos-Manhattan, edit an article about the diseases of asbestos workers written by a Metropolitan Life Insurance Company doctor. The changes minimize the danger of asbestos dust.

1935 - Officials of Johns-Manville and Raybestos-Manhattan instruct the editor of Asbestos magazine to publish nothing about asbestosis.

1936 - A group of asbestos companies agrees to sponsor research on the health effects of asbestos dust, but require that the companies maintain complete control over the disclosure of the results.

1942 - An internal Owens-Corning corporate memo referred to "medical literature on asbestosis . . . scores of publications in which the lung and skin hazards of asbestos are discussed." Following this, the president of Johns-Manville said that the managers of another asbestos company were "a bunch of fools for notifying employees who had asbestosis." When one of the managers asks, "Do you mean to tell me you would let them work until they dropped dead?" The response is reported to have been, "Yes. We save a lot of money that way."

1942 or 1943 - The president of Johns-Manville says that the managers of another asbestos company were "a bunch of fools for notifying employees who had asbestosis." When one of the managers asks, "do you mean to tell me you would let them work until they dropped dead?" The response is reported to have been, "Yes. We save a lot of money that way."

1951 - Asbestos companies in 1951 removed all references to cancer before allowing publication of research they sponsored. The next year, John-Manville's medical director recommended that warning labels be attached to asbestos products. He later testified that he believed the reason his suggestion was ignored was because it would have had a negative affect on sales. Records indicate that numerous other warnings were ignored or modified by asbestos officials before reaching workers throughout the decade

1952 - Dr. Kenneth Smith, Johns-Manville medical director, recommends (unsuccessfully) that warning labels be attached to products containing asbestos. Later Smith testifies: "It was a business decision as far as I could understand . . . the corporation is in business to provide jobs for people and make money for stockholders and they had to take into consideration the effects of everything they did and if the application of a caution label identifying a product as hazardous would cut into sales, there would be serious financial implications."

1953 - National Gypsum's safety director writes to the Indiana Division of Industrial Hygiene, recommending that acoustic plaster mixers wear respirators "because of the asbestos used in the product." Another company official notes that the letter is "full of dynamite," urges that it be retrieved before reaching its destination. A memo in the files notes that the company "succeeded in stopping" the letter, which "will be modified."

1964 - Dr. Irving Selikoff publishes a study of asbestos workers in the Journal of the American Medical Association, proving that people who work with asbestos-containing materials have an abnormal incidence of asbestosis, lung cancer, and Mesothelioma.

1964 - A study of asbestos workers published in the Journal of the American Medical Association proved that people working with asbestos-containing materials had an abnormal incidence of asbestosis, lung cancer and Mesothelioma.

1971 - First OSHA asbestos-exposure standard was issued in 1971, followed by an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ban on spray-on asbestos insulation in 1973. The Manville Trust was formed in 1974 to settle asbestos personal-injury claims resulting from exposure to asbestos-related products mined or manufactured by the Johns-Manville Corp. and its affiliated entities. By 1978, a judge ruled there was "a conscious effort by the [asbestos] industry in the 1930s to downplay or arguably suppress the dissemination of information to employees and the public for fear of the promotion of lawsuits." After this statement, the EPA announced its intention to issue a rule banning all uses of asbestos.

1973 - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) bans spray-on asbestos insulation as an air pollution hazard.

1978 - Judge rules there had been "a conscious effort by the [asbestos] industry in the 1930s to downplay or arguably suppress, the dissemination of information to employees and the public for fear of the promotion of lawsuits."

1979 - U.S. EPA announces intention to issue rule that bans all uses of asbestos.

1986 - OSHA tightens asbestos-exposure standard.

1989 - OSHA tightened asbestos-exposure standard in 1986. By 1989, the EPA had banned asbestos in most major uses. However, a federal lawsuit by the asbestos companies in 1991 overturned the EPA's asbestos ban. OSHA tightened asbestos-exposure standards again in 1994. Finally, in 1999, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that Owens Corning willfully withheld information about the danger of working with the company's asbestos products stating, "It would be difficult to envision a more egregious set of circumstances.a blatant disregard for human safety involving large numbers of people put at life-threatening risk."

1991 - Asbestos companies win federal lawsuit, court revokes EPA's 1989 asbestos ban.

1994 - OSHA tightens asbestos-exposure standard.

1999 - Florida Supreme Court rules that Owens Corning willfully withheld information about the danger of working with the company's asbestos products: "It would be difficult to envision a more egregious set of circumstances . . . . a blatant disregard for human safety involving large numbers of people put at life-threatening risk."

2003 - In 2003, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) introduced legislation to set up a $108 billion national trust fund to compensate asbestos victims, cap business liability and ease the filing of lawsuits.

Mesothelioma Treatment Help Center is not designed to provide medical advice or is intended to be for educational use only. The information provided through Mesothelioma Treatment Help Center is not a substitute for professional care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or a disease. If you have, or suspect you may have, a health problem we can refer you to a mesothelioma doctor or lawyer in your state.