The Synergistic Effect of Smoking and Asbestos Exposure
On their own, both asbestos and tobacco smoke are dangerous and can lead to lung cancer, but when someone is exposed to both over a long period of time, they work together to greatly increase someone’s risk of developing lung cancer. Cigarettes contain over 5,000 chemicals, many of which are poisonous and at least 70 cause cancer. Smoking sends chemicals to all parts of the body through the lungs and blood. Smoke contains many harmful chemicals including 1,3-Butadiene, used in rubber manufacturing; arsenic, which is a poison; benzene, an industrial solvent made from crude oil; beryllium, which is used in nuclear reactors; cadmium, which is found in batteries; chromium, which is used to manufacture dye, paint, and car alloys; formaldehyde, which is used in science labs and mortuaries; polonium-21, a highly radioactive element; and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are a group of dangerous chemicals found in oil and coal, including benzo(a)pyrene.
Asbestos is a fibrous mineral found in rock and soil. There are six types of asbestos including amosite, crocidolite, tremolite, anthophyllite, actinolite, and chrysotile. All types of asbestos except for chrysotile are amphibole, meaning straight fibers, while chrysotile is serpentine, which means curly fibers. When asbestos is disturbed in any way, fibers are released into the air where they can then be inhaled. Fibers are microscopic and float in the air due to being basically weightless. Once inhaled, fibers become lodged in the lungs and go through the lungs into the mesothelium surrounding the lungs, known as the pleura. Once lodged in the lungs, asbestos fibers cannot be broken down by the immune system and stay in the lungs, where they then cause DNA changes in cells, leading to lung cancer and in the case of the pleura, pleural mesothelioma.
Once cigarette smoke and asbestos are combined, they work together and multiply the risk of being diagnosed with lung cancer. When someone smokes and is exposed to asbestos, the smoke changes the natural immune response to asbestos fibers. Asbestos fibers are already hard to clear, and smoke makes the immune system even less capable of clearing the asbestos fibers. Within the lungs, tobacco smoke decreases the ability of the lungs to remove particles from the area, which includes asbestos. Smokers could retain more asbestos fibers in the lungs compared to non-smokers, increasing the risk of lung cancer. Tobacco smoke also harms the tiny hair-like structures in the lungs called cilia that normally clear out dust and debris. When the lungs are damaged by smoke and asbestos, fibers can become lodged longer, allowing cancer causing chemicals from smoke to stay in the lungs a longer period of time, allowing for more DNA changes in lung cancer cells.
Asbestos increases the incidence of lung cancer about five to seven times, while cigarette smoking alone increases the risk 15 to 20 times. When the two are combined, the risk is increased 50 to 100 times that of a nonsmoking, nonasbestos exposed person. For people who are exposed to asbestos and smoke, the risk lasts for 20 years after they stop smoking, if they decide to stop. When people are exposed to asbestos and smoke, if they stopped smoking less than seven years ago, the risk of lung cancer is 22 times higher than never smokers. Not everyone who is exposed to asbestos will develop lung cancer, but high levels of long-term exposure do create a significant risk.
The best way to reduce your risk of developing lung cancer is to not be exposed to asbestos and not to smoke. If you worked with asbestos in the past, it is impossible to change this, but you can at least not smoke. Prevent further exposure of asbestos from the environment and from the workplace by either not interacting with asbestos or wearing the proper protective clothing and respirators. People who worked with asbestos are greatly risking the chance that they are going to develop lung cancer if they smoke and decide not to quit or choose to start smoking. Lung cancer caused by asbestos has a long latency period of around 15 to 40 years. If people smoke and were also exposed to asbestos, the likelihood of developing cancer increases and most likely develops faster when combined. To reduce harm from asbestos exposure, medical screening is a good option for high-risk individuals. Low-dose CT scans can help detect lung cancer early enough that treatment is more effective and there are more options for treatment compared to being diagnosed later.
Whether you smoke or not, asbestos exposure greatly increases your risk of lung cancer. If you do smoke and were exposed to asbestos, the best option is to quit immediately. It will take time, but once you quit, your risk of lung cancer will be reduced. Similar to regular lung cancer, lung cancer caused by asbestos can either completely or partially be in remission if caught early and treated. There are multiple treatments available for lung cancer caused by asbestos including surgery, systemic therapy like chemotherapy, immunotherapy, targeted drugs to shrink the tumors, and radiation to kill cancer cells and control localized tumors. If you have lung cancer or mesothelioma due to asbestos exposure you could be owed compensation.
If you were exposed to asbestos and later diagnosed with mesothelioma or lung cancer, contact us today to see if you could be entitled to compensation. Call 412-471-3980 or fill out our contact form and a member of our team will get back to you to review your case.
