Asbestos exposure has been linked to serious medical conditions, including:

mesothelioma and different types of lung cancer.

However, asbestos may impact people’s health in other ways. While scientists are still reviewing the data, recent research suggests that asbestos could trigger autoimmune diseases.

Autoimmune Diseases are diseases where the body attacks its own healthy cells.

A Brief History of Asbestos

Asbestos is a group of naturally occurring minerals that were once renowned for their strength, resiliency, and heat-resistant properties. People have used asbestos for thousands of years. The ancient Romans, for instance, would fortify tablecloths and burial shrouds with asbestos fibers, while the Greeks once mined asbestos on the coastal Island of Evvoia.

Doctors Warned the Asbestos Industry About Dangers for Decades

Physicians began to doubt the safety of asbestos products in the late 19^th century.

However, asbestos was widely employed by different industries: the so-called “miracle mineral” was put into everything from automotive parts to wall paint and carpet underlay. Asbestos was so popular that many homes constructed between the 1920s and 1970s still suffer significant asbestos contamination.

The Dangers of Asbestos Exposure

Health researchers, like the National Cancer Institute, state that there is no safe level of asbestos exposure.¹ However, some people are more likely to develop asbestos diseases than others.

An individual’s risk of developing an asbestos-related illness is often dependent on how they were exposed to asbestos.

The two main forms of asbestos exposure are:

Occupational Asbestos Exposure

Occupational Asbestos Exposure affects individuals who worked with asbestos minerals or fibers. An estimated 20% of asbestos workers will develop asbestos-related illnesses later in life.

Second-Hand Asbestos Exposure

Second-Hand Asbestos Exposure affects individuals who lived with former asbestos workers.

Before the dangers of asbestos were widely known, asbestos workers would often come home in soiled uniforms, tracking microscopic asbestos fibers into their cars and homes.

Experts believe that people who suffered secondary asbestos exposure are just as likely to develop asbestos illnesses as former asbestos workers.

Occupational and second-hand asbestos exposure have been linked to serious health conditions, including:

Mesothelioma
Asbestosis
Lung cancer
Other serious respiratory illnesses

Asbestos Diseases Have A Long Latency (They Can Take Decades To Appear)

Asbestos-related illnesses often remain dormant for a very long time. The time between an individual’s first asbestos exposure and a mesothelioma diagnosis, for instance, is usually between 20 and 50 years.

Unfortunately, the risk of developing asbestos-related illnesses does not go down with time. If an individual inhaled asbestos fibers while working on a single construction site, they could still fall sick even if they never interacted with asbestos again.

Asbestos and Autoimmune Diseases in Montana

People often associate asbestos with mesothelioma and other cancers.

However, scientists have recently uncovered links between prior asbestos exposure and dangerous autoimmune diseases. Montana State University immunologist Jean Pfau has investigated the prevalence of autoimmune diseases among the residents of Libby, Montana, a small town that is also home to a vermiculite mine.

While pure vermiculite is non-toxic, the mineral is often found in close proximity to asbestos. Libby’s vermiculite mine is no exception. Mine workers, their family members, and even part-time residents of Libby were all affected by toxic, asbestos-laced fumes and dust clouds.

Long-Time Libby, Montana Residents More Likely to Test Positive for Autoimmune Antibodies

When Pfau analyzed blood samples taken from 50 Libby residents and compared them with 50 samples taken from a control group, she found that the Libby residents were more likely to test positive for the presence of “antinuclear antibodies,” or ANAs. ANAs are a special type of antibody that can attack the body’s own cells, and are often found in people who have compromised immune systems.

Pfau told Chemical & Engineering News that asbestos is not usually associated with autoimmune disorders.

“Mesothelioma is almost exclusively associated with asbestos and other elongated [asbestos] fibers,” Pfau told C&EN. “Autoimmune disease is not. There are a lot of triggers for autoimmune disease, so it becomes very difficult to connect it to asbestos.”

However, an estimated 6.7% of Libby residents have been diagnosed with autoimmune diseases – a percentage well over six times the national average.

Pfau believes that certain kinds of asbestos, called amphibole asbestos, could cause autoimmune diseases and disorders.

When Pfau exposed her laboratory mice to the same type of amphibole asbestos found in Libby, they developed antibodies for lupus, a common but potentially life-threatening autoimmune disease.

Asbestos Exposure and Autoimmune Diseases

Research like Dr. Pfau’s suggests that asbestos exposure could, at the very least, enhance individual risk for autoimmune diseases, including:

Lupus
Rheumatoid arthritis
Scleroderma

While Pfau has suggested that asbestos-related lung scarring could cause the body to create dangerous antinuclear antibodies, scientists are still trying to understand this proposed link between asbestos exposure and autoimmune diseases.

If you may have been exposed to asbestos, speak with your healthcare provider about tests and screening to help detect the presence of asbestos fibers and asbestos-related damage.

AsbestosClaims.Law

AsbestosClaims.law is your comprehensive resource for all things asbestos. We hope this information is helpful.

If you have any additional questions or concerns related to asbestos, check out our website and YouTube page for videos, infographics and answers to your questions about asbestos, including health and safety, asbestos testing, removing asbestos from your home and building, and legal information.

And if you believe that you were exposed to asbestos, or have been diagnosed with an asbestos illness, you could be entitled to significant compensation – money you could use to cover the costs of asbestos removal services, pay for medical treatment, and preemptively protect your physical well-being.

All without filing a lawsuit.

If you’d like help with filing a claim, please get in touch by email at [email protected], or call or text us at [email protected], or call or text us at (833) 4-ASBESTOS (427-2378) or (206) 455-9190. We’ll listen to your story and explain your options. And we never charge for anything unless you receive money in your pocket.

1 National Cancer Institute, Asbestos Fact Sheet (“The overall evidence suggests there is no safe level of asbestos exposure.”)