What Is Pallative Treatment?

Aside from surgery, radiotheraphy and chemotheraphy, mesothelioma patients can be be treated also with Palliative treat.

Palliative treatment, which is also called palliative care, is treatment designed to relieve the symptoms of disease and improve quality of life. It can address psychological, social and spiritual needs as well as physical symptoms. With regard to physical symptoms, it aims to treat the symptoms of disease but is not meant to cure the illness. In cases of advanced cancer, palliative treatment may sometimes extend life and help the patient live more comfortably, even if the cancer cannot be cured.

Palliative treatment goes well beyond painkillers and anti-nausea drugs. Chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hormone therapy, biological therapy and surgery can all be used as palliative treatments under the right circumstances. Often, the level of pain associated with mesothelioma is quite high. Thus, pain control is usually one of the first symptoms addressed by palliative care, and it is important for the patient to be able to help the doctor accurately assess the pain the patient is experiencing. This may include traditional pain management programs, involving several different pain medications. Palliative care can also focus on behavior modification, managing stress, meditation or massage therapy. Palliative surgery may be performed to reduce pain caused by the tumor or to prevent fluid from building up and causing discomfort. Radiation therapy is also useful in relieving pain caused by mesothelioma. Palliative care plays an important role in maximizing the quality of life for mesothelioma patients.

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Asbestos Textile Workers Show High Mortality Rates From Occupational Lung Diseases

A new study by Duke University, in conjunction with the University of Nevada (UNR) and the University of North Carolina, shows that former North Carolina workers employed in asbestos-textile plants have a definitively higher rate of asbestos-related diseases than the population at large.

The study, headed by Dana Loomis, Interim Director, UNR's School of Community Health Sciences, examined 5,770 employees who worked at least one day between January 1, 1950 and December 31, 1973.

The results, which showed that the mortality rate was significantly higher for all causes (1.47 as compared to a value of 1.00 for the general population), also showed that deaths from lung cancer ranked at 1.96 (as compared to a value of 1.00).

The pleura are the membranes that line the inside of the chest cavity and surround the lungs, enabling the lungs to expand to the appropriate degree inside the diaphragm when people breathe. Pleural mesothelioma is a type of pleural cancer caused primarily by asbestos fibers, and is the most common type of mesothelioma.

Asbestos fibers, inhaled, result in irritation of the pleura, or mesothelial lining. Because the body has no way to expel the fibers, the persistent irritation leads to lesions, which in turn lead to cancer.

Pneumoconiosis, the second category of occupational lung diseases, is an interstitial disease, a classic example of which is pulmonary fibrosis. Interstitial diseases affect the walls of the air sacs inside the lungs, rather than the pleural lining over the lungs, and result in scarring. This, in turn, limits a lung's ability to expand properly. Medication can occasionally slow the progress of pneumoconiosis, but many individuals, once affected, never regain the full use of their lungs, and lung transplants are the only option.

Asbestosis is a breathing disorder specifically caused by inhaling asbestos fibers, and is usually a cumulative effect, arising after years of exposure. The fibers cause lung scarring, which can gradually restrict breathing to such an extent that patients are unable to walk more than a few feet without stopping, and require constant oxygen. The symptoms, which can range from mild to severe depending on exposure and a person's general stamina, commonly don't appear until years after exposure to asbestos fibers.

The Duke, UNR study demonstrated a statistical risk across the entire spectrum of 2 to 3 percent higher for each year asbestos fibers were inhaled - figures which were more consistent among white males than for any other group surveyed. The second at-risk category was white females, and both groups scored higher in the risk assessment categories than black males, presumably because the latter group saw fewer smokers and workers who occupied different regions of the asbestos textile plants, namely preparation and carding operations, where fibers were shorter than in the spinning and twisting sections where white males generally worked, according to transmission electron microscopy, or TEM, analyses.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations (limiting asbestos to 1 percent of product by weight or volume) have driven the asbestos textile industry overseas. This is good news for American workers, but not so good for workers in places like Korea and Egypt, for example.

Attempts by the United Nations to add asbestos to the list of hazardous substances already on the Rotterdam Convention have been consistently opposed by Canada, which is the world's largest supplier of chrysotile asbestos.

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Asbestos Textile Workers Show High Mortality Rates From Occupational Lung Diseases

A new study by Duke University, in conjunction with the University of Nevada (UNR) and the University of North Carolina, shows that former North Carolina workers employed in asbestos-textile plants have a definitively higher rate of asbestos-related diseases than the population at large.

The study, headed by Dana Loomis, Interim Director, UNR's School of Community Health Sciences, examined 5,770 employees who worked at least one day between January 1, 1950 and December 31, 1973.

The results, which showed that the mortality rate was significantly higher for all causes (1.47 as compared to a value of 1.00 for the general population), also showed that deaths from lung cancer ranked at 1.96 (as compared to a value of 1.00).

The pleura are the membranes that line the inside of the chest cavity and surround the lungs, enabling the lungs to expand to the appropriate degree inside the diaphragm when people breathe. Pleural mesothelioma is a type of pleural cancer caused primarily by asbestos fibers, and is the most common type of mesothelioma.

Asbestos fibers, inhaled, result in irritation of the pleura, or mesothelial lining. Because the body has no way to expel the fibers, the persistent irritation leads to lesions, which in turn lead to cancer.

Pneumoconiosis, the second category of occupational lung diseases, is an interstitial disease, a classic example of which is pulmonary fibrosis. Interstitial diseases affect the walls of the air sacs inside the lungs, rather than the pleural lining over the lungs, and result in scarring. This, in turn, limits a lung's ability to expand properly. Medication can occasionally slow the progress of pneumoconiosis, but many individuals, once affected, never regain the full use of their lungs, and lung transplants are the only option.

Asbestosis is a breathing disorder specifically caused by inhaling asbestos fibers, and is usually a cumulative effect, arising after years of exposure. The fibers cause lung scarring, which can gradually restrict breathing to such an extent that patients are unable to walk more than a few feet without stopping, and require constant oxygen. The symptoms, which can range from mild to severe depending on exposure and a person's general stamina, commonly don't appear until years after exposure to asbestos fibers.

The Duke, UNR study demonstrated a statistical risk across the entire spectrum of 2 to 3 percent higher for each year asbestos fibers were inhaled - figures which were more consistent among white males than for any other group surveyed. The second at-risk category was white females, and both groups scored higher in the risk assessment categories than black males, presumably because the latter group saw fewer smokers and workers who occupied different regions of the asbestos textile plants, namely preparation and carding operations, where fibers were shorter than in the spinning and twisting sections where white males generally worked, according to transmission electron microscopy, or TEM, analyses.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations (limiting asbestos to 1 percent of product by weight or volume) have driven the asbestos textile industry overseas. This is good news for American workers, but not so good for workers in places like Korea and Egypt, for example.

Attempts by the United Nations to add asbestos to the list of hazardous substances already on the Rotterdam Convention have been consistently opposed by Canada, which is the world's largest supplier of chrysotile asbestos.

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Japanese Court Awards Compensation To Former Military Base Employee

A district court has awarded 76 million yen (approx. 800,000 dollars) to the family of a former US naval base employee who died of lung cancer after being exposed to asbestos.

Hitoshi Taimi worked at the United States naval base in Yokosuka for 18 years and during that time he was exposed to asbestos while performing work on air conditioning and ventilation systems.

In April 2006, 11 years after he last worked on the base, Taimi was diagnosed with lung cancer and proceeded to file a lawsuit the next year. Sadly he passed away 10 days later at age 51.

Two years later a district court ruled that the Japanese government was liable for his death because it manages the hiring of base workers and knew about the dangers of asbestos exposure but failed to take appropriate safety measures.

Japan's defense ministry has not indicated whether it plans to appeal the verdict but if the decision stands, it will set an interesting precedent for future lawsuits.

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