Mesothelioma Causes

Mesothelioma lung cancer is ordinarily related with asbestos exposure. In fact there are numerous other peril constituents that cause mesothelioma cancer. One of them is the erionite. Erionite is a naturally occurring fibrous solid homogeneous inorgani substance that belongs to a group of solid homogeneous inorgani substances called zeolites. Zeolites are hydrated aluminosilicates of the alkaline and alkaline-earth metals.

Erionite was applied in the past as a noble metal-impregnated catalyst in a hydrocarbon-cracking process. It was studied for use in fertilizers and to control odors in livestock production, because of it is capacity to selectively adsorb corpuscles from air or liquids. In numerous countries erionite blocks were employed (and may be are still used) as building material or in stucco pastes and whitewash.

Erionite was cited for the original time as a mesothelioma lung cancer risk element in 1975, when Turkish government staged a study that uncovered a high incidence of a rare malignant mesothelioma in lung tissues of people in sure little villages in the Cappadocia area in Turkey’s central mountainous region. In two little villages the mesothelioma lung cancer accounted for 43% of the deaths for the duration of 23 years amount of time of study. Erionite fibers were found in biopsies of lungs of the mesothelioma cancer afflicted people. Comparing this to a 9.7% rate of death from this sickness amid asbestos insulation installers shows how anomalous this condition was.

Further studies showed erionite causes similar diseases in laboratory animals. When researchers at Mt. Sinai Hospital injected rats with the same dosage of erionite that they employed for asbestos, the rats didn’t live long sufficient to get mesothelioma cancer. At a much-reduced dose, the rats did get cancer. Erionite is probably the most toxic known solid homogeneous inorgani substance – a milligram of fibers in the lungs is lethal.

Today erionite is considered so hazardous that the EPA requires any one who intends to manufacture, import or routine any article containing erionite to notify the E.P.A. 90 days in advance. This gives the EPA a prospect to review, limit or prohibit that activity.

Erionite is no longer mined or marketed for mercantile purposes.

Although other natural zeolites have a great deal of mercantile uses (pet litter, soil conditioners, animal feed, waste-water treatment, gas absorbents, etc.) So potential occupational exposure to erionite occurs for the duration of the production and

mining of other zeolites.

And there are questions:

Are there other mineralogical hazards like erionite and asbestos?

Should we expected mesothelioma lung cancer increments not only from asbestos exposure after another 20 – 30 years?