Who Gets Asbestosis?
Asbestosis isn’t the sort of lung disease one can develop due to a smoking habit. The only known cause of asbestosis is exposure to toxic asbestos fibers. Those who work directly with the material are the most likely candidates for the disease, and because asbestos has been essentially banned or rarely used since the mid-1970s, the most diagnosed cases have occurred in men who worked with the material prior to that decade. Asbestosis takes at least 10 to 20 years to develop and can actually take much longer than that to appear. That means asbestos-exposed workers are often not diagnosed with asbestosis until much later in life and sometimes long after they’ve retired. Remember, once asbestos fibers have been inhaled, they cannot be expelled, so the risk of developing asbestosis or mesothelioma is always present, even if the individual in question no longer works with the dangerous material. Because asbestos was used more often in some industries than others, particular occupations are
