History of Malignant Mesothelioma

In the late 1950s early 1960s, pathologists in South Africa began noticing strange lesions and
lung tumors in people who worked in the asbestos mining industry there. Although public health
experts throughout the world had earlier identified an increased risk of lung cancer in people
who worked in industries in which asbestos was used, without autopsies or modern diagnostic
tools, these people were never officially diagnosed with mesothelioma.

The true nature of the risk didn’t really become apparent until the 1960s, when a series of case
studies (in which cancer rates of people who worked in asbestos-related industries were
compared to those who worked in other fields) demonstrated a clear correlation between asbestos
exposure and lung diseases. Over the next 20 years, hundreds of studies in animals and humans
confirmed the link between the disease and the mineral.

In 1972, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) began regulating the use of
asbestos in the workplace; but it wasn’t until July 12, 1989 that the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) issued its final rule banning most asbestos-containing products, a regulation that
was overturned in Federal court two years later. Thus, although many asbestos-containing
materials are banned, including certain papers and flooring felt, and although products that never
contained asbestos cannot now be manufactured with asbestos, the mineral can still be used in
some cases.

Although the mineral is rarely used in most industrialized countries today, it continues to be
extensively used in developing countries. In addition, because it can take up to 50 years between
exposure to asbestos and development of the metastatic mesothelioma, people exposed decades
ago are just now being diagnosed.