Health Effects — Asbestosis, Lung Cancer, and Mesothelioma

Inhaled asbestos fibers are linked to three major diseases (OSHA, NIOSH, EPA):

• Asbestosis — a buildup of scar tissue in the lungs that makes breathing progressively harder. It's not cancer, but it's permanent and can be disabling or fatal.
• Lung cancer — asbestos exposure raises the risk of lung cancer.
• Mesothelioma — a rare, aggressive, almost always fatal cancer of the lining of the lungs or abdomen that is caused almost exclusively by asbestos exposure.

Asbestos exposure is also linked to cancers of the larynx and ovary and other lung problems.

These diseases have a long latency — they often don't appear until 10 to 40 years after exposure (NIOSH/EPA). A worker exposed in their twenties may not get sick until their fifties or sixties. That delay is exactly why people take asbestos too lightly: nothing seems to happen right away.

There's no established safe level of exposure, and the risk builds with the amount and length of exposure. Every disturbance you avoid lowers the lifetime risk.

Smoking and asbestos together are far worse than either alone. The combination multiplies the lung-cancer risk dramatically — much more than just adding the two risks together (NIOSH/EPA).

For a worker who may have any asbestos exposure, not smoking is one of the most protective things they can do. It's also a reason to take even 'minor' exposures seriously if you smoke.