Italian researchers have recently completed a report that was published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, a scientific journal. The report discusses the influence of asbestos exposure in the workplace on the likelihood of developing asbestos related cancers later in life. The research, conducted by four separate medical institutions, documented the health of miners who had worked in the Balangero mine, formerly the largest open pit asbestos mine in all of Europe.
Many asbestos related diseases are known for their remarkably long latency period, or the time it takes from exposure to asbestos until malignant tumors form and are detectable. This latency period, which can be several years and often even decades, normally obscures efforts to effectively understand asbestos’s role in acquiring diseases like mesothelioma, an aggressive and fatal cancer caused by asbestos fibers. Documenting the health of former mine employees for more than thirty years allowed the researchers to capture useful information concerning the direct link between asbestos exposure and the development of rare cancers.
The study concluded that former employees of the Balangero mine were far more likely to contract mesothelioma of both the chest and abdominal cavity, and that their deaths were likely to occur at a far younger age than average. Each case of mesothelioma which occurred in the former miners was diagnosed more than thirty years after their first exposure to the substance.
Studies like these are helping to tighten restrictions regarding the use of asbestos products. While many developed nations have already either banned or heavily regulated the mineral, developing nations such as India, China, Mexico, Bangladesh and more still import asbestos heavily.
