Here is a brief overview of Malignant Mesothelioma.

Everybody must be aware of occupational hazards or diseases, if not, these are the diseases or conditions, caused directly or indirectly, by the environment, instruments, products, food or other such things in which we work. There are various conditions afflicted by our working place, e.g. Accidents, Eye sight problems, bacterial infections, cancers and so on. These diseases can be mild or can take a lethal form. So you must be aware of such conditions to safe guard your health and take preventive actions.

There are many conditions which affect the lung, known as occupational lung diseases, affecting a person via what he inspires through the air in the working enviroment. Few examples are baggasosis, bissinosis, asbestosis and so on. I would like to tell you about malignant mesothelioma, which is a rare type of pleural lung cancer which affects the pleural linking of a covering which covers the lung surface known as mesothelium.

Malignant mesothelioma or often known as mesothelioma includes various types of cancer like pleural mesothlioma, peritoneal mesothelioma and pericardial mesothelioma, all affecting the respecting sites of origin, viz pleural surface of lung, peritoneal surface of the abdominal cavity and pericardial layer of the heart respectively. Out of all of them, pleural mesothelioma is the most common form and accounts for around 70% of the cases. Infact if not specified, mesothelioma is granted as malignant pleural mesothelioma.

The common signs and symptoms are breathlessness, chest pain and tightness, cough, blood in sputum, fatigue, weight loss, collection of fluid around lungs etc. For diagnosis various tests required are chest x-ray, CT scan, MRI and histopathology of the tumour mass.

Now coming to the legal part.

There are various causes of this diseases, but one thing to emphasise is exposure to asbestos. Asbestos is considered to be one of the major risk factor for the development of malignant mesothelioma. Asbestos is used in many industries as erionite or zeolite minerals or fibres, in heating and construction factories, insulation tools and so on. So to prevent the development of this lethal condition among the workers, OSHA of United States and HSE of United Kingdom have passed various protection acts for the minimum exposure level of the workers to asbestos. The companies must provide adequte protective clothings for the workers working in such conditions. However, if knowingly or unknowingly, one suffers from malignant mesothelioma, the company is liable to provide the compensation for all the treatment and handicap cost for the victims. For this they can take help of a mesothelioma lawyer to make a claim in the court of law.

Hope this guide must have given you at least some basic information on mesothelioma (though you should not act on your own, take help of your doctor and legal adviser).