Asbestos pleural disease

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Asbestos pleural disease

Asbestos related conditions

Pleural plaques

The pleura is the two-layer membrane that surrounds your lungs and coats the inside of your rib cage. If you have been exposed to asbestos, it is very common for these membrane areas to thicken and accumulate calcareous material. These areas are called pleural plaques.

If you have pleural plaque, that doesn't mean that:

- You will continue to get a more serious illness

- You have a more serious illness now

Being exposed to asbestos does increase the risk of developing serious lung conditions such as asbestosis, mesothelioma or lung cancer. But there is no scientific evidence that having pleural plaques increases the risk further. So, if you are exposed to asbestos, you don't need to worry if you are told that you have pleural plaque.

Pleural plaque is not the same as asbestosis. In addition, plaque is not a form of cancer.

Symptoms

Most of the time, you will not have symptoms. You can live with pleural plaque without having long-term problems with your health. You can live with them for years without knowing you have it.

If you have chest symptoms such as shortness of breath, coughing, or pain, it's important not to think that this is caused by plaque and ignore it. Symptoms are more likely caused by other conditions that might need attention.

Diagnosis

If you have been exposed to asbestos and don't have chest problems, you usually don't need to do a chest x-ray or CT scan, unless your health professional recommends it. The risks associated with X-ray exposure or CT scans outweigh the benefits of knowing you have pleural plaques.

Treatment

There is no need to treat pleural plaque in any way.

If you smoke, you should seek help to stop. This will reduce your chances of getting lung disease associated with smoking such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or lung cancer.

Diffuse pleural thickening

Diffuse pleural thickening is where extensive scar tissue, often smooth, thickens the pleural membrane that lines your lungs and chest wall.

Asbestos exposure is not the only cause of diffuse pleural thickening. Other causes include infection, inflammatory disease and non-malignant pleural effusion, which is when there is fluid around the lungs. In all these cases, one or both lungs can be affected.

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Symptoms

When your pleura becomes thicker and harder in a large area, your lungs cannot expand so far and you may feel panting.

Diagnosis

GP You will refer you to a specialist for lung function tests and CT scans. This is a special X-ray machine that takes pictures of cross sections of your body. Sometimes it will be necessary to take a sample, or biopsy, from the thickened pleural membrane to exclude the diagnosis of mesothelioma.

Treatment

In most cases, no treatment is needed because pleural thickening usually does not cause very severe symptoms. Avoiding smoking, maintaining active rehabilitation and lungs (PR) are usually the most useful choices. If your shortness of breath is severe, surgery can be considered. This is rare because it is usually not very effective.

Asbestosis

Asbestosis is a rare long-term lung condition. It usually develops around 20-30 years after you inhale large amounts of asbestos dust during your work.

Symptoms

If you breathe asbestos fibers, the fiber can nest in the lungs and cause scar tissue. These scars cause your lungs to contract and harden. In turn, this causes you to become short of breath because your lungs cannot hold air as much as before. At first this can only happen after you are physically active but in the end it can become a more constant problem. Other symptoms include:

- coughing continuously

- wheezing

- fatigue or extreme fatigue

- pain in your chest or shoulder

- in further cases, clubbed (swollen) fingertips

Diagnosis

If you have one of the symptoms mentioned above, you should discuss this with your general practitioner. Your general practitioner may hear a crackling sound in your lungs and may recommend a chest x-ray which, in some cases, can show asbestosis scarring. If you are likely to suffer from asbestosis, your general practitioner will refer you to a hospital specialist for further tests such as lung function tests and CT scans of your chest. This is a special X-ray machine that takes pictures of cross sections of your body.

What to do if you have been exposed to asbestos

If you think that you may have been exposed to asbestos in the past, it is important for your general practitioner to find out. However, that is no reason to panic.

Most people do not suffer from serious or life-threatening lung disease as a result of asbestos exposure. You should always seek medical advice if you have symptoms such as coughing, shortness of breath or chest pain.

Talk to your doctor about:

- any work in the past or present with the risk of asbestos

- live with someone who has worked in a job with asbestos risk

- DIY or other situations where you might be exposed to asbestos

- ensuring your exposure to asbestos is documented in your medical record

- your symptoms and how to relieve them

- tests that you might need

- do you have to see a specialist

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DIY home improvement and asbestos

If you do DIY work at home and think you have found asbestos, you should seek advice from an environmental health worker at the local council. They will be able to tell you who to contact to remove asbestos or what steps you need to take to protect yourself. If you live in England or Wales, you can find out more about removing asbestos on their website. If you live in Northern Ireland, visit the government website for more information.

Asbestos - magic fiber

Asbestos, which was known in prehistoric times (1800 BC), was a material that had never been burned, decayed or rusted. It is isolated from cold and noise, it has high elasticity and tensile strength.

In short, asbestos material is almost indestructible.

Because of its excellent characteristics, asbestos minerals have been used in various ways in various types of technology.

As a rule, differences are taken between weakly bound asbestos products such as:

- Asbestos material is sprayed,

- asbestos insulation boards,

- asbestos cloth,

- and asbestos products that are very tied like

- asbestos-cement sheets,

- corrugated asbestos cement sheets,

- asbestos-cement pressure pipe.

Asbestos - a dream or nightmare?

At present, asbestos is no longer a highly valued ingredient as it once was. On the contrary, it has become a very sensitive subject. It is now undeniable that small fibers can cause incurable diseases of the respiratory organs.

Huge efforts and costs will be needed for decades before this serious danger to humans and the environment has been completely eliminated.

Safety engineering steps

When handling or working with materials containing asbestos, the process must be designed in such a way that no asbestos fibers are released into the air, or that this is reduced to the lowest possible level with existing technology.

If asbestos fibers are released accidentally, they must be collected completely at the source and then disposed of without risk to humans or the environment.