Public awareness of mesothelioma, a deadly disease caused by exposure to asbestos, appears to be rising throughout the developed world. Outcry and public protest in response to the proposed expansion of the Jeffrey Asbestos Mine in Quebec, the potential establishment of a National Mesothelioma Awareness Day in the United States, and even media recognition in popular television evidence the rise in public sympathy with the cause.

The disease made its way into popular media when an ABC show, BostonMed, centered an episode in July around a mesothelioma patient’s battle with the cancer. The episode featured Charles Chew and Dr. David Sugarbaker, a real-life mesothelioma patient and a cutting edge mesothelioma surgeon.

Mesothelioma is a terminal cancer of the soft tissue lining which protects many of the body’s vital organs. It is caused by exposure to asbestos fibers, a phenomena which often occurs in industrial settings such as manufacturing plants for sealants, brake pads, asbestos boards and insulation. The disease can take as long as several decades to develop from the initial time of exposure, making it exceedingly difficult to diagnose and virtually impossible to detect early.

Dr. Sugarbaker, a thoracic surgery specialist who is well known for his radical mesothelioma treatment approach, has had much success mitigating the effects of the disease and drastically reducing the rate of the cancer’s recurrence. Historically, patients have faced a grim prognosis which predicts just six to eighteen months of survival. Dr. Sugarbaker’s radical treatments implement tumor removal surgery, intra-pleural chemotherapy and regular chemotherapy efforts to destroy cancerous tumors and slow or eliminate the regrowth of malignant tissues. His patients, amazingly, have survived mesothelioma for as much as five years.

Dr. Sugarbaker is the the founder of the International Mesothelioma Program (IMP) at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA, and is well known for his efforts to combat the cancer. While many doctors recommend only palliative treatments to mesothelioma patients, Sugarbaker adopts a far more positive outlook.

With increasing understanding of mesothelioma in both the public and medical sectors, patients may be able to look forward to a somewhat less fatalistic approach to treating the disease in the near future.

“When hope is in the equation,” says Sugarbaker, “anything is possible.”

According to Kanawah Circuit Court records in West Virginia, eighteen people are preparing to bring a lawsuit against one-hundred and forty-seven companies involved in the manufacture, distribution or implementation of asbestos products. While the accusations have not been entirely formalized, the plaintiffs maintain that their health has been jeopardized by the negligent practices of the companies in question.

Asbestos has long been known to cause a variety of diseases including mesothelioma, a cancer of the mesothelial tissues which line the body’s lungs, abdomen and heart. While the effects of the mineral have been fairly well understood since the early twentieth century, lobbyists have had some level of success in downplaying the dangers of asbestos and mitigating the bans placed on the material by countries around the world. In the United States, for example, the original asbestos ban passed by the Environmental Protection Agency in the late 1980′s was overturned by a large company, Corrosion Proof Fittings, with a vested interest in the asbestos industry’s continued success.

When asbestos fibers are inhaled or ingested, they are able to pass through many of the body’s tissues due to their peculiar shape and microscopic size. The fibers, however, are eventually arrested in the sticky mesothelial tissues, where they cause a scarring reaction which can develop into malignant tumors.

Mesothelioma is a terminal illness which normally causes death within just six to eighteen months from diagnosis. The disease can take decades or even half a century to develop from the time of original exposure, complicating the diagnosis process and making early detection near impossible.

Information concerning asbestos’s adverse effects was widely available as early as the 1960′s, a fact which often places the blame for asbestos related illnesses on negligent, irresponsible employers. These employers, ranging from asbestos mining operations through brake pad manufacturers, sealant manufacturers and more, often chose to ignore or suppress accurate information regarding asbestos in order to protect their business model and their profits.

The eighteen plaintiffs in West Virginia claim that their previous employers in concert with a wide selection of asbestos manufacturing companies are responsible for withholding critical information concerning the dangers of the substance.

A plan to construct a new concourse through downtown Quincy, Massachusetts, has run into a time consuming and expensive delay on account of the discovery of asbestos-laden construction materials marked for demolition. The discovery of the dangerous asbestos materials will more than double the demolition costs, and push the remainder of the construction project off schedule.

Asbestos was used eagerly throughout the twentieth century in a variety of industries for its strengthening, fire retardant, and insulating properties. The naturally occurring mineral’s utility was additionally compounded by its incredible availability, ease of fabrication and surprising cost efficiency. Asbestos’s alluring properties come at a price, however, and one that wasn’t fully understood until the latter half of the twentieth century.

Asbestos fibers, when accidentally inhaled or ingested, cause respiratory complications, lung cancer, and mesothelioma – an aggressive, terminal cancer which attacks the lining of the body’s organs. Mesothelioma has become a serious problem around the world as asbestos has been introduced to more and more industries. More than ninety thousand people worldwide die annually from the disease, and hundreds of thousands more are affected by other serious asbestos related illnesses.

Asbestos remediation, or the process of properly disposing of the materials during demolition or construction projects, is tedious and expensive. Asbestos materials must be handled by workmen who wear protective clothing and masks, must be kept moist to prevent accidental inhalation, and must be transported to special disposal facilities. These difficulties sometimes lure contractors into cutting corners – a practice whose repercussions are felt by workmen or innocent bystanders in the decades to come.

The Quincy planning director, Dennis Harrington, said that the costs for the concourse’s demolition project were estimated at some $500,000 as early as mid August. The discovery of large amounts of asbestos materials, however, has pushed the price of the demolition up to around $1.1 million.

“It’s turned out to be about as bad as it can be,” said the planning director. “There are lots of hidden floors with asbestos material.”

The Mayor of Quincy, Thomas Koch, although grateful that the discovered material would be handled properly, was frustrated with the additional costs.

“It’s there. We have to deal with it,” he said. “The city’s not picking up the tab thankfully.”