Specialists predict that the prevalence of asbestos related diseases could rise drastically in India over the next several decades. Indian imports of asbestos products continue to rise. Without adequate safe handling regulations in place the amount of dangerous asbestos exposure in the country can only increase as well. The increase of asbestos related illnesses in India and other Newly Industrialized Countries (NIC) such as China and Mexico is due, in part, to a radically changing asbestos market.

Asbestos was used fervently through most of the twentieth century in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and throughout the European Union. The mineral was fabricated in several products and used as an insulator, fire retardant, and strengthening substance in some building materials. Accumulating evidence of the substance’s toxic effects when inhaled or ingested began to mount, and by the 1930’s scarring of the lung tissues and other respiratory ailments were attributed to asbestos in some British medical journals.

In the late 1980’s many developed nations were facing the effects of asbestos exposure at full force in the form of asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma, a terminal cancer of the body’s organ linings. Asbestos bans became widespread, and where they were overturned by big asbestos companies – such as in the United States – strict regulations were enforced instead.

The resulting vacuum in the asbestos market forced suppliers to find new importers where bans and regulations wouldn’t be a problem. While new asbestos markets such as India, Mexico and China wouldn’t pay the same prices for asbestos products, the remaining asbestos companies would rather begin manufacturing more affordable products than go out of business altogether.

Today the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that some 90,000 people die every year from asbestos diseases. Most asbestos diseases take 20 to 50 years to fully develop from the time of exposure, meaning that the drastically increasing contamination in developing nations won’t be felt in the form of disease right away.

A British medical journal, The Lancet, recently published in an article pertaining to India’s increased asbestos imports: “India’s surging consumption of asbestos, the industry’s hefty political and economic clout, and the country’s poor record of worker protection… [suggest that] a sizeable burden of asbestos-related disease is inevitable… [the health consequences] will be felt into the next century.”

Senator John Tester proposed an amendment to a bill on Monday that could help Libby, Montana to ramp up its inadequately staffed hospitals.

Libby is the home of the W.R. Grace and Co. vermiculite mine, now closed, that pumped asbestos containing waste into the community for nearly one hundred years. The processed vermiculite ore, which contains dangerous amounts of cancer causing asbestos, was delivered into the community for use as potting soil, sports field coverings, paving additives and more.

Asbestos causes mesothelioma, a terminal cancer of the tissue lining the body’s organs, as well as a myriad of other health problems. Some 1,200 people in Libby have been affected by the toxic substance, a fact which is putting plenty of pressure on area hospitals.

Tester’s motion would amend a federal program known as the National Health Service Corps, which has been in place since the 1970’s, to create new incentives for medical specialists to work in and around Libby. The program was originally aimed at general practitioners, and promised medical school scholarships and loan repayments to doctors who agreed to work in rural areas otherwise considered less than profitable.

The amendment would allow specialists to receive benefits as well, granted they’re willing to work in areas recognized as a “public health emergency” by the Environmental Protection Agency. Libby, Montana, as of June 2009, is the only location in the United States with that recognition.

“This is going to really open some doors,” said Senator John Tester Monday, while he was delivering his plan.

Tester believes that Libby’s rural location, unlikelihood of supporting multiple affluent practices, and asbestos contamination problems constitute a considerable deterrent to many would be area specialists.

“It is increasingly difficult,” reads Tester’s bill, “for the health care facilities in [areas like Libby] to recruit the specialists necessary.”

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) and the BBC’s International News Service have joined forces to release a new report concerning the global asbestos issue. The report brings new focus to asbestos problems facing the world at large, and demonstrates how many of the dangers of the asbestos trade have been outsourced to the developing world.

Asbestos fibers cause several dangerous diseases including mesothelioma, a fatal cancer of the soft tissue surrounding the body’s vital organs known as the mesothelium. After being unintentionally inhaled or ingested, asbestos fibers easily penetrate many of the body’s tissues before coming to rest in the mesothelium. Years or even decades later, the scarring reaction caused in the soft tissue can cause the development of malignant tumors. Once present, these tumors rapidly deteriorate the body’s organ systems, often causing death in less than eighteen months.

Until the 1980’s when restrictions on asbestos’s use became commonplace, the substance was used in a wide variety of common construction materials.

As evidence condemning the asbestos trade began to accumulate throughout the twentieth century, bans, laws, restrictions and regulations concerning the substance were forged in many countries across the world. Developed nations such as Australia, New Zealand, the United States and much of the European Union began to recognize the dangers of asbestos and create new laws accordingly. While many asbestos mines began to close across the globe, a few nations refused to act on the accumulating medical and scientific findings, preferring instead to monopolize the shrinking supply and advocate the remaining demand.

Brazil, Russia, and perhaps most surprisingly Canada represent the remaining stronghold on the asbestos industry. More than seventy five percent of the worlds annually produced asbestos comes from these three nations alone. According to the ICIJ and BBC’s report, the industry continues to pour money into propaganda legitimizing the asbestos trade, spending more than $100 million on lobbyists and public relations efforts since the mid 1980’s.

While many developed nations no longer use asbestos products, many vast countries like China and India continue to import the deadly substance year after year. Asbestos fibers are certainly taking their toll in these nations. The ICIJ and BBC’s report claims that as many as one million deaths could result from the trade by 2030.

Vincent Cogliano, a member of the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, told the BBC:

“Chrysotile and other forms of asbestos… cause lung cancer and mesothelioma, and that’s been known for 50 years. My own personal view is that these risks… are as high as just about any known carcinogen that we have seen except perhaps tobacco smoke… so the continued export and continued use of chrysotile will increase the incidence of lung cancer and mesothelioma for many decades to come.”

This week in Albany, Georgia an older building used as a church will undergo a tedious asbestos removal process before its eventual demolition. Asbestos removal experts from all over the state will work together to ensure that none of the potentially dangerous asbestos fibers go airborne during this process. Exposure to airborne asbestos fibers, according to widely accepted studies, can lead to potentially fatal diseases such as mesothelioma, a cancer of the soft tissues surrounding the lungs. Justifiably, the law states a complete removal of all asbestos products is necessary before the owners can start to build a new, state of the art, nine million dollar senior citizen’s home.

In addition to being infested with termites and subject to many of the other issues facing aging buildings, many of the structures in and around Albany are also contaminated with asbestos containing building materials. Unfortunately, aging building materials aren’t the only way that asbestos poses a threat in the United States, as many other common products such as brake pads and cigarette filters once contained the dangerous substance. While the dangers of mesothelioma have been well known since the early 19th century, many companies continued to use asbestos containing products throughout the early 1980’s and beyond.

Sadly, mesothelioma affects over 3000 Americans each year. Individuals most at risk are often those exposed to high concentrations of asbestos for prolonged periods of time. More often than not, the people who become ill from breathing the fibers are exposed on a daily basis in an occupation where they handle asbestos directly. Other asbestos related diseases include asbestos warts which are caused by the sharp fibers being lodged in the skin, and the scarring of sensitive lung tissue associated with asbestosis.

Excitement continues to grow for the new multi million dollar senior citizen’s home as the directors attain safety approvals from the state, the historic society, the city and the federal government to demolish the aging church. According to Ken Hind, who is the Executive Director of the Southwest Georgia Council of Aging, this tedious, meticulous asbestos removal process will benefit them in the end.

“We’ll all be in one location, we plan to make it very attractive and very usable and offer lots of programs and services,” said Hind. And with the added benefit of knowing that the new home’s construction site is completely asbestos free, residents should be able to rest easy.