Numerous scientific papers have been written describing surveys and research studies about the epidemiology, or cause, or mesothelioma. The overwhelming consensus is that asbestos fibers are the unique cause of this devastating disease.
Research done in Great Britain, Europe, South Africa and the United States all confirm these findings. In Great Britain, death records dating back to the 1950s and 1960s stating the cause of death as pleural mesothelioma correlate with the deceased having worked in environments where they were exposed to asbestos. The statistics further correlate with increased numbers of cases of mesothelioma in women who worked in factories using asbestos, such as manufacturing gas masks. In one study covering an 11-year period from 1968 to 1978 deaths in England and Wales from pleural mesothelioma rose by 75% in men working in asbestos related jobs.
In South Africa data supports the cause of death from malignant mesothelioma to be attributed to miners mining crocidolite asbestos specifically, with no correlation to those mining amosite and chrysotile asbestos. This report points out that there are at least five silicate minerals that are all referred to as asbestos. Each of these minerals has unique properties, and, often, several types are found together in nature. This natural combination has hampered research by collective naming that doesn't specify which type causes disease. It appears that crocidolite is the one responsible for causing mesothelioma.
This 2002 report from "{a href-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11836665}Seminars in Oncology" says, "…mortality continues to rise steeply (5% to 10% per year) in most industrialized countries." It goes on to predict a continued increase in mesothelioma cases until 2020 in Western Europe and the United States, and an undetermined rise in less industrialized countries where use is unregulated.
While asbestos has been banned for new uses in the United States, many countries are still manufacturing products using asbestos that they export. Paradoxically, there exists a global effort to address worldwide marketing of products containing asbestos and a simultaneous effort to suppress both scientific discoveries about asbestos-related diseases and to reverse current U.S. regulation of asbestos-related industries. This effort has extended so far as to support publication of scientific articles contradicting the research done over the last 50 years that has isolated asbestos as the single cause of mesothelioma.
And who is behind this effort? This concern is discussed in a report from a 2006 issue of "International Journal of Health Services" titled Asbestos Products, Hazards, and Regulation. The short answer is corporations and industries that stand to benefit from the use of asbestos, and to lose from the evidence that supports litigation against them.
It's bad enough that millions of people worldwide have been inflicted with suffering and death from the devastating diseases caused by asbestos exposure. But these avaricious employers seek, not to make the working environment safer, but, instead, to use their wealth to finance false research and legislation that removes existing protections from American workers and those suffering from secondary exposure.