Mesothelioma.
One of the interesting things about some of the assignments I do, is that it gives me the opportunity to learn something new.
If I hadn't gotten this particular assignment, I probably would have never learned what malignant mesothelioma is.
Do you know what it is?
No?
Well here's what most of us don't know.
Mesothelioma is an asbestos caused cancer that surrounds the serous membranes of many of the body's vital organs.
It surrounds the lungs, abdomen, heart, and sometimes the reproductive organs.
Unlike most cancers that have one large tumor, Mesothelioma is a large number of smaller masses spread out over a large area.
Because of that, surgical extraction is often difficult.
While asbestos use in this country has gone down, there are still 2-3,000 new cases of Mesothelioma every single year.
Asbestos is the only confirmed cause of Mesothelioma.
It has an extremely high latency period of anywhere between 10-70 years after being exposed to asbestos.
That's a hugely long time, so if you worked with it 20 years ago and then they learned about the dangers of asbestos, you could still end up getting Mesothelioma 50-70 years from now.
That sucks.
The truly sad thing is that the corporations that used asbestos, knew of the dangers but never told the employees so they could protect themselves from liability.
Because they failed to warn employees and provide them with protective gear, many people have unnecessarily developed Mesothelioma.
There are clinical trials taking place, there is hope, but if you ever worked with asbestos even once in your lifetime, you should probably be checked every year because of how long it can take to develop this disease.
