Mesothelioma and Smoking

While note directly linked to mesothelioma. Smoking increases a person's chance of getting the disease.Mesothelioma cancer is a serious cancer linked to people who have been exposed to asbestos (even for a short time). Often people who have been found to have mesothelioma don't show signs that they have it until much later. Often the high death rate associated with mesothelioma is attributed to the patient's inability to detect their illness.

Smoking and asbestos exposure is a very serious and extremely toxic combination. The repercussions may include lung cancer or lung related illnesses such as mesothelioma. Both asbestos and smoking attack a persons immune system as well as affecting a patients lungs. Asbestos exposure causes asbestos fibers to become lodged in a person's lungs. Once, the asbestos fibers become lodged in a persons lungs it creates scar tissue that develops the cancer.

Often people only link lung cancer to smoking, to some extent this is true. Mesothelioma is not a case of lung cancer. However, smoking is seen to weaken and aggravate the lungs, asbestosis can form. Asbestosis is not a form of mesothelioma, but it assists in the development of the cancer. Smoking doesn't only increase the chances for developing mesothelioma, but it is known to increase it by 50% or more. It is important that if a person find they do infact have Mesothelioma and smoke. They should stop smoking immediately. It is more likely that a patient who is a smoker will form lung-related illnesses than a person who has been exposed to asbestos for many years.