1. Skip to header
  2. Skip to main
  3. Skip to content
  4. Skip to sidebar
  5. Skip to footer
  • Home > Blog > Featured Story > President’s Cancer Panel Report Highlights Mesothelioma and Other Cancers Caused by Environmental and Occupational Hazards
Posted on Thursday, May 13, 2010

President’s Cancer Panel Report Highlights Mesothelioma and Other Cancers Caused by Environmental and Occupational Hazards

by Nancy Meredith

In their report to President Obama, the President’s Cancer Panel said that environmental exposures are causing “grievous harm” to Americans and that this cause of cancer “has not been addressed adequately by the National Cancer Program.”  The report “Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk — What We Can Do Now” further states that cancers from occupational hazards, including mesothelioma, “needlessly increase health care costs, cripple our Nation’s productivity, and devastate American lives.”

Among the approximately 50 carcinogenic agents identified in the report, asbestos is acknowledged as causing mesothelioma, larynx, lung, and stomach cancers.   Identified as group 1 in the carcinogen classification system, asbestos shows strong evidence of a causal link to the listed cancers.

Once asbestos is disturbed, the airborne fibers can become lodged in the lungs resulting in asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma.  Often called “asbestos cancer,” mesothelioma is highly aggressive and is resistant to many standard cancer treatments. Currently there is no known cure for mesothelioma, and the average survival time varies from 4 – 18 months after diagnosis.  Close to 3,000 Americans are diagnosed with the cancer yearly.

A wide array of workers were exposed to asbestos including shipyard workers, factory workers, pipefitters, sheet metal workers, plumbers, laborers, machinists, mechanics, powerhouse workers, and electricians.  According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) an estimated 1.3 million employees in the construction and general industry still face significant asbestos exposure on the job. Employees may be exposed during the manufacture of asbestos products such as textiles, friction products, insulation, and other building materials, as well as during automotive brake and clutch repair work.

The report cites the fact that asbestos exposure can also occur when other substances are contaminated with asbestos fibers, and not only directly from asbestos itself. Specifically, the report notes that in the Libby, Montana vermiculite mine, the source of more than 70 percent of all vermiculite sold in the U.S. from 1919 to 1990, there was also an asbestos deposit at the mine. Subsequently, the insulation product Zonolite, manufactured from the asbestos-tainted vermiculite, has put residents of an estimated 30 million U.S. homes at risk of asbestos exposure if the insulation is disturbed.  

Further, the panel identified nuclear weapons plants as a source of multiple myeloma, a relatively rare blood system cancer, from the radiation exposure.  At the Washington Hanford Nuclear Reservation the report also noted that “the construction workers also were found to be 11 times more likely to develop mesothelioma, probably due to asbestos exposures at the site.”

The report authors, LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr., M.D., F.A.C.S., of Howard University College of Medicine and Margaret L. Kripke, Ph.D., of The University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, urged President Obama to “use the power of your office to remove the carcinogens and other toxins from our food, water, and air.”

 Following are some of the recommendations they suggested be enacted by the Federal Government:

  • A thorough new assessment of workplace chemical and other exposures is needed to quantify current health risks.  Previous estimates of occupational cancer risk are outdated and should no longer be used in government or industry.
  • Information sharing among the public, researchers, regulatory agencies, industry and other stakeholders must be a bedrock component of the environmental health regulatory system mission.
  • Environmental and public health advocates should be included in developing the environmental cancer research and policy agendas and in information dissemination.
  • Physicians and other medical personnel should routinely query patients about their previous and current workplace and home environments as part of the standard medical history.
  • Public health messages should be developed and disseminated to raise awareness of environmental cancer risks and encourage people to reduce or eliminate exposures whenever possible.

The report is available from the US Department of Health and Human Services.