David N. Weissman, M.D.’s Testimony: Asbestos-Related Disease

Read more from the testimony of Dr. Weissman, who spoke before the Senate’s Committee on the Environment and Public Works about the dangers of asbestos related disease.

Exposure to asbestos significantly increases the risk of developing several types of cancer and non-cancerous diseases. Most asbestos-related diseases, particularly the cancers, have long latency periods often extending 10-40 years from initial exposure to onset of illness. These include:

Asbestosis—a non-cancerous disease characterized by scarring of the air-exchange regions of the lungs. Progressive lung damage can cause progressive shortness of breath and inability to engage in physical activity, as well as other symptoms such as coughing and chest pain;

Lung cancer—for which asbestos is one of the leading causes among non-smokers, and which occurs at dramatically high rates among asbestos-exposed smokers;

Malignant mesothelioma—an almost invariably fatal cancer of the tissue covering the lungs and chest wall (called the pleura) or abdomen (called the peritoneum) for which asbestos and similar fibers are the only known cause; and

Nonmalignant pleural disease—asbestos exposure can affect the pleura in several ways. It can cause a painful accumulation of bloody fluid surrounding the lungs. It can cause a circumscribed thickening, fibrosis, and sometimes calcification of pleural tissue—a condition called pleural plaques. Finally, it can cause a more severe condition with more extensive and sometimes constricting scarring of the tissue surrounding the lungs called diffuse pleural thickening.

Courtesy of EPA

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