It is a known fact that cigarette smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer. So it shouldn’t come as any surprise that if someone who has been exposed to asbestos smokes cigarettes, they are greatly increasing their chances of an asbestos related illness like mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma is a rare and aggressive cancer that forms in the mesothelial cells that make up the lining of organs. The most common form is pleural mesothelioma which forms in the lining of the lungs. Pericardial (heart) and peritoneal (stomach) mesothelioma have also been observed but much less often than pleural. The only known cause of mesothelioma is exposure to asbestos, a naturally-occurring mineral that was used extensively in the 20th century in military and industrial applications.

According to the American Cancer Society, a connection between asbestos exposure and lung cancer was recognized as early as 1925, and confirmed by many epidemiologic studies of asbestos-exposed workers over the next 70 years. In contrast to the general nonsmoking public, nonsmokers exposed to asbestos are five times more likely to develop lung cancer.

As early as the 1950s, the medical industry started to note an apparent relationship between the development of lung cancer and the joint effects caused by both smoking and receiving exposure to asbestos. Although the carcinogenic affects of asbestos and cigarettes independently cause lung cancer, exposure to both results in an increased risk that is greater than the additive sum of the two risks. This is known as multiplicative synergism, which suggests the attributable risks for asbestos exposure and smoking exceed the total risk of their sum.

As a result of this multiplicative synergism, smokers who are exposed to asbestos are 50 to 84 times more likely to develop lung cancer, and some studies have even found these figures to lie closer to 80 to 90 times the risk of control populations. They are also at a greater risk of developing both asbestosis and mesothelioma cancer.

Like most cancers, mesothelioma is best treated when caught early. Unfortunately, this type of cancer does not usually show symptoms until about 25 to 50 years after exposure to asbestos. Early mesothelioma symptoms are also similar to other less serious respiratory ailments and often go unnoticed until they become severe. By the time mesothelioma is diagnosed, it is usually in advanced stages and is therefore difficult to treat effectively.

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