Increased Cancer Rate for Those Living Close to Asbestos Plants

Mesothelioma has been shown to be much more prevalent in those individuals who lived within a 2-mile radius of a factory manufacturing asbestos or asbestos-containing products.

Asbestos fibers were used for many years in all sorts of building materials until they were discovered to be dangerous. Those materials included, but were not limited to insulation, tiles and fireproofing.

Any individuals who worked directly in an asbestos producing plant are at the highest risk of developing cancer from exposure to fibers, which can penetrate the lungs and the surrounding linings causing this rare form of cancer.

Researchers in Japan recently conducted a study of over 70 individuals who had lived near an asbestos pipe plant for nearly twenty years and subsequently died from mesothelioma. None of the people had ever worked directly in an asbestos factory. These death rates were four times the expected rates for individuals in this area.

Drs. Norio Kurumatani and Shinji Kumagal found that those residents who were within 300 meters of the asbestos plant first showed signs of mesothelioma over four decades after the first year of residence near the plant. . The death rates from mesothelioma that were recorded for the study were 41 times higher than the normal death rate for women and 14 times higher for men

The rate of mesothelioma deaths decreased as the range of distance from the plant increased. Those at greatest risk of exposure were those living within 1.5 miles of the plant.

The findings of this study are published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine and according to Drs. Norio Kurumatani and Shinji Kumagal support the connection between asbestos exposure from the plant and the increased death rates from mesothelioma.

The former plant operators, Kubota Corporation, created a compensation fund for those individuals who resided near the plant and suffered from mesothelioma.

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