Mesothelioma Awareness Day 2021
This upcoming Sunday is Mesothelioma Awareness Day. This is a day to recognize the incurable cancer of the mesothelium, which is a membrane that surrounds organs including the lungs, abdomen, heart, and testicles. Pleural mesothelioma (lungs) is the most common form, followed by peritoneal (abdomen), pericardial (heart), and testicular (testicles). The first Mesothelioma Awareness Day was started by the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation in 2004, with Congress commemorating the day in 2010. If you would like to participate, you can wear blue during the day, donate to the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation, or post information about mesothelioma to social media, helping people learn about the disease.
Mesothelioma was truly first discovered in 1767 as a pleural tumor, but it was not identified or classified until 1931 by Klemperer and Rabin. In 1960 it was discovered that asbestos causes mesothelioma by J.C. Wagner, C.A. Sleggs, and P. Marchand in South Africa. They discovered that people who lived or worked in an area containing an asbestos mine had a high prevalence of mesothelioma. It was later confirmed by studies done in the United States, Europe, Australia, and Japan.
There are many different workers who could be exposed to asbestos. People who worked at steel mills were exposed to asbestos on a regular basis. Steel mill workers worked with extreme heat, so they utilized asbestos products to protect them from the heat, but while doing so they endangered their lives. Insulators, boiler workers, firefighters, industrial workers, shipyard workers, and textile mill workers were all exposed to asbestos on a regular basis as well. Either the workers used protective equipment to protect themselves, installed insulation that contained asbestos, or created products containing asbestos. All these people endangered their lives daily without knowing they were doing so.
Survival rates for mesothelioma are not great but are continuing to improve because of new treatments. The average survival after being diagnosed is four to 18 months. There are people who have lived much longer, but they are outliers. The five-year survival rate is 10 percent for all stages combined, meaning 10 percent of people diagnosed with mesothelioma are still alive after five years. This clearly shows that mesothelioma is a deadly cancer, and it is best to avoid asbestos altogether to reduce the risk of developing it.
Participating in Mesothelioma Awareness Day can greatly help spread the word about mesothelioma. If you would like to participate, create posts on social media with the hashtag #curemeso, wear blue, and share the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation’s social media posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Read more about mesothelioma and learn how you can prevent it or detect it early if you are in a high-risk group. Together, we can learn more about mesothelioma to prevent it and possibly find a cure.
Do you have mesothelioma or lung cancer from asbestos exposure? Contact us today to see if you could be entitled to compensation by calling 412-471-3980 or filling out our contact form. We will get back to you as quickly as possible.
