An international group of researchers has just released the results of a 15-year study of global mesothelioma rates. The findings suggest that this rare form of cancer (caused specifically by exposure to asbestos) strikes many more people than anyone had previously anticipated. In fact, research has shown that between 1 in 4 and 1 in 5 cases go unreported.
The study was sponsored by The National Institute of Health, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The results were released in an article written in 2010 that was accepted for publication in Environmental Health Perspectives and posted in its entirety online in January of 2011. Researchers Eun-Kee Park et al. surveyed 89 countries worldwide, collecting data from a fifteen year period between 1994 and 2008.
World Health Organization data from the 56 countries in which mesothelioma rates were recorded showed that the disease killed 174,300 people. Researchers then dug deeper for corroborating data. Because mesothelioma has an incubation period of up to forty years, they went back prior to 1970 and found the total amount of asbestos use in those 56 countries during that time frame. Official data, taking into account for political destabilization and storage of mass quantities of the carcinogen, shows that over 65 million tons of asbestos were used up until 1970.
Comparing those two numbers the researchers found a mathematical equation that defined the linear relation of asbestos use to cases of mesothelioma. They used that formula to calculate disease rates in the 33 countries in which no mesothelioma data exists. The result was shocking. It was estimated that 38,900 previously unknown cases of mesothelioma (roughly ¼ of the reported cases) went undocumented. The total sample size of this study accounts for 82% of the world’s population.
Heavily industrialized nations lead the pack for use of asbestos and mesothelioma deaths. During the time frame in question, the five countries that consumed more asbestos than any other were (in order of tonnage) the United States, UK, Italy, Germany, and France. Those five countries suffered almost 112,000 cases of mesothelioma in total—over 64% of the world’s documented cases.
Researchers warn that after 1970, the date when they stopped collecting data, asbestos use almost doubled to 124 million tons. That means that countries which used asbestos after 1970 or are still actively using it are expected to see their mesothelioma rates climb even higher as the latency period for new cases reaches its end period.
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