West on the brink of asbestos disease epidemic

Friday, 30 January 2004 12:44 AM

The West is on the brink of an asbestos disease epidemic, according to doctors writing in the British Medical Journal.

According to forecasts, 100,000 people will die from mesothelioma, a malignant cancer, in the next 25 years.

"The peak of the epidemic is expected in 2015 to 2020 when the death rate is likely to be 2,000 per year in the United Kingdom," said Professor Tom Treasure of Guy's Hospital in London.

Professor Treasure called on doctors around the world to look out for early signs of the disease. Symptoms include pain, difficulty breathing and swallowing, abdominal swelling, poor appetite and weight loss.

"Many countries are seeing the rising tide of an epidemic and all doctors need to know how to recognise and diagnose this disease and what treatments are available," he said.

"The disease is increasing in frequency. There is nothing we can do now to prevent it in workers exposed to asbestos throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

"What we can do is recognise it early, treat it actively and learn about best treatment with carefully thought out studies because we will be seeing many more mesotheliomas in the next 25 years.

"In the developed world alone, 100,000 people alive now will die from it."

The cancer is caused by the inhalation of asbestos.

The disease - which can take 50 years to develop - claims the lives of nearly 2000 Britons each year.

Thousands of Brits were exposed to asbestos in the last half of the twentieth century when asbestos was used as an insulator in buildings. Laws restricting the use of asbestos were introduced in 1983.

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