At the asbestosis workshop, organized by the Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), located in New Delhi, Dr. Qamar Rehman, a professional toxicologist known as an emeritus scientist doctor of the Indian Institute of Toxicological Research, revealed and also he talked about the asbestosis and mestohelioma cancer.
He presented to the people at the workshop the risk of contacting one of this deadly diseases caused by exposure to asbestos. Dr. Rehman pointed the fact that women who have worked in polluted asbestos areas and also handled and worked with products and materials containing asbestos where exposed to the risk of developing mesothelioma cancer, which is a rare type of cancer but one of the most aggressive of all types of cancer.
Asbestos in India
In Rajasthan women working in the asbestos area, which have been exposed to contaminated asbestos fibers air, have contacted in just less then five years of asbestos exposure the so called mesothelioma cancer, a deadly form of cancer.
It is well known that mesothelioma starts showing illness symptoms after a long period from the exposure. It can take up to 40 years for the mesothelioma symptoms to show up. The latency depends on the type and damage level of asbestos exposure.
Dr. Rehman also pointed the fact that in last six months, three former mine workers, from the Netaji Ka Bara and Upreta villages in the Jhadole district of Udaipur, have died from mesothelioma cancer. They contacted this aggressive disease while working with asbestos.
Victims of mesothelioma and asbestosis
Another representant form the OHENI talked about the victims of mesothelioma cancer and asbestosis, about delayed diagnosis, a major problem for mesothelioma patients, about misdiagnosis and absence of legal remedy for their incurable disease.
Tata Memorial Hospital, located in Mumbai, was part of this workshop and has presented 127 cases of mesothelioma and lung cancer. The purpose of this workshop was to give vital information about the danger of exposing to asbestos, for people who have worked in asbestos areas or people who are still working in these contaminated places.
The Rajasthan government’s plea for renewing mining of asbestos in the state stems from a study by the Indian Bureau of Mines that recommends for the lifting of the ban on mining of chrysotile asbestos.