Additional Mesothelioma Statistics
- Each year 2,500 to 4,000 patients in the U.S.are diagnosed with mesothelioma and asbestos-related diseases.
- Mesothelioma has a long latency (inactive) period of anywhere between 15 – 50 years.
- Experts predict that mesothelioma diagnoses will continue to increase in the United States for at least another 10 to 20 years.
- While many countries have banned certain forms of asbestos, an estimated 5,000 asbestos-containing products exist today.
- As many as 8 million people in the U.S. have already been exposed to asbestos and it continues to pose a serious threat to workers in certain occupations.
- One study of asbestos insulation workers reported a mesothelioma death rate up to 344 times higher than the general population.
- Most mesothelioma victims die within 18 months of diagnosis. Mortality is swift not because the cancer is fast-growing but because it usually is far advanced by the time it is detected.
- Poor prognostic variables include: nonepithelial histology, older age (greater than 75 years), pleural primary, chest pain at presentation, poor performance status, and elevated platelet count (greater than 400,000/mcL).
- By the year 2030 there are estimates that asbestos will have caused 60,000 instances of mesothelioma and around 250,000 other cancers that result in death.
- Over half a million asbestos and mesothelioma injury claims have been filed to date. Over 50,000 were filed in 1998 alone.
- Every year, more than 10,000 people worldwide (3,000 in the U.S. alone) are diagnosed with mesothelioma or other asbestos-related conditions.
- More than 110,000 schools in the U.S. still contain some form of asbestos.
- 8 million Americans have been exposed to dangerous levels of asbestos.
- Asbestos insulation workers have a mesothelioma death rate 344 times higher than that of the general population.
- More than 7,500 Americans died from mesothelioma between 1999 and 2001.
- The industries with the highest mesothelioma mortality rates are ship building and ship repairing.
- People working around industrial chemicals had the second-highest rate, and those in the construction industry were third.
- 85% of mesothelioma deaths are male; this has more to do with asbestos exposure than with gender.
- There is also a high rate of mesothelioma deaths among schoolteachers, many of whom are female.
- The average age of people diagnosed with mesothelioma is between 50 and 70, but the number of people diagnosed with mesothelioma between the ages of 30 and 40 is increasing.
- Asbestos is used to make more than 5,000 products worldwide.
- Even when mesothelioma treatment is possible, it is very expensive, sometimes costing between $400,000 and $800,000 for oxygen, drugs, pain medicine and other forms of treatment