By Kate E. Salute
³How was work this week?²
I was in a particularly gabby mood, so I began to tell my parents about the article I was working on about mesothelioma.
³What¹s that?² my father asked.
I explained how mesothelioma is a cancer caused by the fiber asbestos and how it had caused some very excruciating deaths right here on Long Island. My father nodded in recognition of the description of the slow killer.
³That¹s what my father ‹ your grandfather ‹ died of: asbestos-induced emphysema.²
Asbestos, according to the Mesothelioma Lung Cancer Web site, is a mineral that is mined similarly to other minerals like iron, lead and copper. Unlike most minerals, which turn into dust particles when crushed, asbestos breaks up into fine fibers that are too small to be seen by the human eye. It is inhalation of asbestos fibers which can cause mesothelioma or asbestos lung cancer. ³Even low exposure levels of the tiny fibers or asbestos dust are very dangerous. When the particles are inhaled, they can lodge in the lungs, damaging cells and increasing the risk for lung cancer.²
Many occupations are associated with asbestos exposure (for a list, go to www.mesothelioma-lung-cancer.org/risk-jobs). The Centers for Disease Control recorded 702 deaths in the construction industry between 1990 and 1999 ‹ the highest of the industries listed for that period of time. Ship and boat building and repairing came in second with 171. Working with miscellaneous nonmetallic mineral and stone was fifth, with 75 deaths.
My grandfather worked in the Brooklyn Navy Yard for five years when he was young, and then spent 25 years working in a factory that made steel kitchen cabinets and printing galleys. For 30 years he worked with asbestos, and rarely if ever wore a mask. And, like so many others of his generation, my grandfather was a smoker. I¹d bet my right arm that the combination of the professions that put food on the table and a common vice were what led to his early death.
My father calls it a ³double whammy,² but it¹s more of a triple whammy if you ask me.
Emphysema is a different manifestation of lung damage from cigarette smoking. As far as we know, smoking doesn¹t cause asbestosis or mesothelioma, but it affects the lungs¹ natural mechanism of protecting themselves, making people who smoke more vulnerable to inhaled asbestos and more likely to develop asbestosis, other asbestos-induced diseases and lung cancer.
I never knew my dad¹s father. He died at 59, in 1976, seven years before I was born. For that matter, he died before three of his four grandchildren were born, and even the eldest was left without a single memory of a man that family friends and elderly relatives recall as a real character, tall and string bean-skinny, with wavy Cosmo Kramer-like hair. (OK, so Kramer is my comparison from a number of photos I¹ve been shown, though ³skinny as a string bean² is a common description among all who had the pleasure of knowing my grandfather.)
I encourage everyone to read the article on the walk for mesothelioma. If you work in an industry that deals with asbestos, wear your mask, and get frequent chest X-rays and CT scans. Educate yourself on your risks and what you can do to lower them. Most of all, I implore you to take part in the first annual Walk for Hope and help raise money for the not-for-profit organization Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation (MARF), which is dedicated to finding a way to detect and treat the disease earlier. Hope to see you there.
The information about asbestos above comes from the Mesothelioma and Lung Cancer organization (www.mesothelioma-lung-cancer.org). Statistics of death by industry are from the Centers for Disease Control. Comments? KSalute@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 205.
