Malignant Tumors Stemming from Exposure to Asbestos

The malignant diseases due to asbestos are mainly lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma.

A number of other tumors in the body has been claimed to be increased in asbestos workers but the scientific proof varies and they can be disregarded in a review like this one. Lung cancer is mainly a disease caused by smoking.

However, exposure to asbestos will increase the risk in a dose-related manner. Most data point to a multiplicative effect for smoking and asbestos.

In a non-smoker, the risk of developing a lung cancer is very small, and even if this risk is doubled due to asbestos exposure, the risk will remain low.

In other words, most “asbestos lung cancers” are also “smoker’s cancers”.

It is also easily understood that lung cancer is a difficult disease to use as a marker of low dose exposure to mineral fibers, since the main numbers of this disease are caused by smoking which might vary much in the population.