Though not directly exposed to asbestos in high concentrations, family and friends of workers who are heavily exposed are at some risk, as evidence shows. This contamination can come from the clothing of a someone who works with asbestos, living near an asbestos mine, plant or other location, breathing the air in those locations where asbestos exists is large quantities, drinking liquids that have been exposed to asbestos, eating foods grown in dirt or otherwise ingesting dirt that has been exposed to asbestos. Ultimately, exposing your family and friends to asbestos might cause one or more of them to develop mesothelioma many years later.Exposure of Children

Asbestos fibers can be found in dirt and water supplies near workplaces that mine asbestos or use it extensively in industry. Children are known to drink more fluid per body size, and eat more dirt than adults. Children may ingest dirt by eating it directly, eating foods with dirty hands, or eating food that was dropped on the ground. Children’s lung structure is different than adults, and their fragile respiratory and digestive systems may be more susceptible to inhaled or ingested asbestos particles than an adult’s. Since mesothelioma does not show up until many years after the first exposure, 20 to 50 years by most estimates, it is difficult to estimate whether children are at greater risk than adults, though it is reasonable to consider this possibility.

Resources, Income and Health Care Benefits

If you become unable to work before reaching retirement age, you and your family will suffer the loss of your income and health benefits. Treatment for mesothelioma is expensive, so, even if you qualify for social security disability (SSD) and Medicare coverage, you will go many months, possibly years without income or Medicare coverage before your social security disability is approved, and another 25 months before you are eligible for Medicare.

If your social security disability application is approved, your income will be less than half what you are accustomed to earning, and Medicare does not cover all costs. You will have to pay insurance premiums for Medicare part A, B, (or C) and D, further reducing your usable income.

If you have not worked 40 quarters by the time you become disabled, you will not qualify for social security disability, but might qualify for supplemental security disability insurance (SSDI), and state Medicaid. SSDI is a significantly smaller income than SSD, and Medicaid is usually more limited medical coverage than Medicare, though there is no premium.

Quality of Life and Relationships

In addition to exposing family and friends to contamination from which they might later suffer health consequences, their lives, as well as these relationships, will be affected by your illness.

• If your wife was not formerly employed, she may need to go to work
• She will not be as available to care for you
• If your wife was already working, your income will be reduced to what she can bring in
• You are likely to have medical expenses that are not covered, even by Medicare
• You may need additional help with activities of daily living, such as dressing, fixing meals, taking medications, picking up prescriptions, traveling to the doctor, and more
• You may not be able to play with your children or grandchildren, or enjoy the company of friends and family as others your age might do
• You may find that fewer of them visit for social reasons
• Many friends, as well as some family members, will drift away, not knowing how to relate to you anymore

If you are fortunate enough to have good friends, they will likely be willing to help you, but your relationships will change along with your activities. Mesothelioma will cause your life will change in every way possible.

Medical records that pertain to asbestosis or mesothelioma must be dug up from the archives of the past. Without medical record collections and retrievals, the forewarnings of impending asbestosis and mesothelioma come only from witnessing the sufferings of an asbestosis patient or the languishing death of a mesothelioma cancer patient.Asbestosis and mesothelioma statistics are sharply under-estimated due to the lack of many nations to implement an efficient medical retrieval system and properly care for and diagnose lung disease patients who are suffering from asbestosis or mesothelioma due to asbestos exposure. In many nations, physicians that are able to properly diagnose the disease are rarely, if ever, available. These same nations often have poor record keeping systems in place to monitor health trends and examine medical histories. Many times asbestosis and mesothelioma are simply referenced as “lung disease,” without a proper determination of the classification of lung disease.

Years pass before these progressive lung diseases start showing their scarring presence, but an archive of medical history can facilitate proper diagnosis, and national archives of medical histories can facilitate early warnings. Despite this knowledge, India has no cancer registry, nor does it have a system for recording mesothelioma and asbestosis cases. In the Philippines, the Occupational Safety and Health Center (OSHC) reports that asbestos caused diseases will be under diagnosed due to low employer participation in submitting medical records to a central agency. (Less than 5% of employers do so.)

In Brazil, where corporations scurry to cover any implications of occupational hazards or ill will, medical records are virtually non-existent for asbestos workers. The Eternit asbestos plant in Brazil has had asbestos workers for over 50 years, yet no medical records were ever kept prior to 1978. In China, death records are purged and permanently eliminated after death, leaving no source for documenting trends in deaths or comparisons and similarities between diseases. And although China is one of the top five asbestos producers and users in the world, this nation continues to have a minimal amount of empirical studies on the implications of asbestos exposure.

Fortunately, in many nations, allowable exposure limits are being reduced, inspections are being heightened, and politicians and corporations are being pressured. Environmental groups and protection agencies continue to test asbestos material and promote its eventual ban. Unfortunately, politics and corporations still govern irresponsible asbestos promotions, and millions of innocent people are unaware of its dangers. The lack of public awareness has led to a deadly economic dependency on asbestos.

Asbestosis and mesothelioma deaths need to be recorded, death records need to be maintained, and medical histories of asbestos workers need to be compiled to gain a full realization of the statistical and economical impact of the world’s burgeoning asbestosis and mesothelioma crisis. Asbestosis and mesothelioma records are useless, however, unless they are used to promote change and develop public awareness - which is precisely what the mining and trading nations are afraid of.

The lung diseases asbestosis and mesothelioma have been proven for decades to be a result of asbestos exposure. Yet, asbestos continues to be mined, and employers still fail to protect workers from the dangers of asbestos. Faint warnings to the public have been made barely audible, and a deadly global health epidemic is looming on the horizon.Asbestosis and mesothelioma are the subjects of 21st century international reports warning international officials, advocacy workers, and the general public of an impending epidemic of these two devastating diseases. Asbestosis and mesothelioma, which are caused by exposure to asbestos, take decades to surface symptoms, and the retired workers of yesteryear’s thriving asbestos industries are beginning to suffer from asbestos related diseases today.

In countries like Brazil, workers suffered decades under corrupt politics, medical care was discouraged, workers were randomly dismissed from employment, and diagnostic tests were not made available to support any identification or claim for asbestosis or mesothelioma. It is only recently that unions protecting workers have surfaced, but for thousands of asbestos workers, it is too late to avoid succumbing to the harsh lung disease of asbestosis or the fatal cancer of mesothelioma.

As workers and innocent home dwellers continue to be exposed to asbestos, the death estimates due to asbestos related diseases will continue to reach into the next half century. Factories in China spew asbestos from their factories into neighboring cities. In Africa, a state of emergency has been requested in asbestos filled territories where hundred-mile stretches are filled with residents living, working and sleeping while surrounded by airborne asbestos fibers. In India, the European Asbestos Removal Association (EARA) issued a 2008 report titled “India’s Asbestos Time Bomb” which warns of India’s future burden of caring for tens of thousands of asbestosis and mesothelioma patients as a result of India’s infatuation with asbestos products. In this asbestos removal report, comparisons are made between the export levels of India and the UK. In just two decades, India’s asbestos imports surpassed the levels that the UK used in their entire industrial history. The UK is now facing record levels of occupational disease, with thousands dying from mesothelioma every year. Despite the UK’s forewarning of the future, India continues to import massive tons of asbestos products annually, and corporations with significant monetary interest encourage unsuspecting consumers to embrace the use of asbestos products.

Even with indiscriminate medical records that deflate the actual deaths due to asbestosis and mesothelioma, the World Health Organization estimates that asbestosis and mesothelioma will be responsible for 90,000 deaths around the world in a single year. As long as asbestos continues to be mined, imported and exported - the numbers will continue to rise over the next century.

Asbestosis and mesothelioma are not diseases that are easily recognized by physicians or the lay citizen. The public must be made aware of the dangers of working with, and living with, asbestos made products. Scientists and manufacturers must race to discover the economic answer to replace asbestos products with a safer alternative. But with or without change, the next decade will surface the consequences of haphazard occupational healthcare as the children of tomorrow care for the asbestos workers of today