Health officials in the United Kingdom have found that the number of mesothelioma deaths among women in that country has risen sharply in recent years. According to statistics from Cancer Research UK, deaths from mesothelioma among women have risen by 57% in recent years, giving mesothelioma the most sharply increasing death rate of any cancer among women.
Experts in the UK are unsure of why deaths caused by mesothelioma have risen so sharply among women. In an interview with the Daily Mirror, surgeon John Edwards states:
We don’t know why the incidence in women is rising. We need further research to determine the risk of low level exposure to asbestos.... The fact that the ratio has changed suggests that the pattern of exposure has changed.
Unlike most mesothelioma cases among men—who are often exposed to asbestos in the workplace—Edwards says that many of these female mesothelioma victims did not work in industries usually associated with asbestos exposure, such as construction or industrial jobs.
Some experts believe that the rise in mesothelioma cases among British women may be due to the increased use of asbestos tiles and ceiling panels in schools built during the 1960s and 1970s. Edwards states that some clinicians believe that many of these mesothelioma cases involving women were the result of low level exposure to asbestos, such as that which would occur from exposure to the asbestos-containing materials used to build older schools.
Although the number of female mesothelioma victims is lower than it is among males, these new statistics illustrate the dangers asbestos poses to women—even those who have never worked in the asbestos industry. In addition to teachers who may be victims of direct asbestos exposure, many women have suffered secondhand asbestos exposure from asbestos fibers that were carried home on the skin or clothing of husbands or fathers who worked in asbestos-related jobs.
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