The threshold limit above which asbestos and also erionite will cause malignant mesothelioma will vary to some great extent among individuals because of the exposure to cofactors, genetic factors, the type of mineral fiber that is inhaled, and so on. In the United States, the incidence of Malignant Mesothelioma has increased dramatically since the late 1950s until the beginning of the century and has remained rather stable about 2,500 to 3,000 per year ever since. Since around 100% of individuals that developed malignant mesothelioma die of it, approximately more than 100,000 American citizens are expected to die of malignant mesothelioma during the next 40 years. Because of its long latency period, it is projected that malignant mesothelioma mortality rates are likely to continue to higher number by five to ten percent per year in various industrialized areas for the next two to three decades, in spite of asbestos abatement efforts.
Malignant Mesothelioma: Preventable Tragedy
Malignant mesothelioma denotes a particular and peculiar tragedy in the field of cancer, since most deaths are associated with the exposure to carcinogenic mineral fibers, and therefore most malignant mesothelioma deaths have to be prevented. We would like to note that the United States has put massive investment in the implementation of measures devoted to preventing deaths of American citizens that are caused by attacks of terrorist, with the outlook that such attacks and resultant deaths are prevented.
Over the last ten years, less than 5,000 people died in attacks associated with terrorists in the United States. During the very decade, around 25,000 to 30,000 American citizens died of malignant mesothelioma, which are actually preventable deaths. But, the United States invests less than two to three million dollars every single year so as to support the medical research aimed at developing treatments and strategies to cure or prevent malignant mesothelioma.
At the same time, private sectors spends or earn some billions of dollars every year in asbestos-related malignant mesothelioma litigation and the abatement of asbestos. Some of the massive US companies have been bankrupt due to this litigation and thousands of jobs are lost. Even though several large companies have already paid billions in litigation expenditure and eventually gets bankrupt, to the best of our understanding, none has actually made massive investment to enhance research on preventing and treating malignant mesothelioma, research which would have likely reduced the incidence of malignant mesothelioma and of course saved these establishments from bankruptcy. The dearth of funding for malignant mesothelioma related study has hampered its progress severely.
This is due to the fact that a lot of scientists and researchers are reluctant to enter or go for research in this particular area as limited provision of funding seems to have put theircareers in a jeopardy. Because of short funding, novel researchers appear reluctant to enter the field and the existing ones have been forced to leave. Well, so what is behind this? One particular influence is the myth-which is fueled by the recent papers evincing that malignant mesothelioma is continuously disappearing.
