I-search background and Why section.

Background:

A couple of years ago my father was working at the paper mill in Lincoln, Maine when he had got into some type of material called asbestos. Asbestos is a type of mineral fiber that has been used commonly in a variety of building construction materials for insulation and as a fire-retardant. (http://www.epa.gov/iaq/asbestos.html) Several asbestos products have been banned because this material is known to cause cancer. When my father was told about what type of material he had got into he was told that he immediately needed to make an appointment with his physician and be checked and told the damage that asbestos can cause. He was told the damage that asbestos causes, which is cancer. The physician told him that when they find out that he has cancer than it will most likely be too late to treat it. The things that we were told gave us all a scare. My family didn't take the news as well as my father thought they would. Everyone's reaction in the family was depressing to me. Being as young as I was when my father was told this news I took it like any young child would but the rest of my family denied the fact of what he had been told. No one in my family talked about it, especially my dad's mom. She had already lost a son and the thought of loosing another frightened her, which was expected but it broke my father's heart. He needed his family to be there to help him and talk to him about this issue, but everyone wanted to brush the issue off, and that's exactly what happened. I have had family members that have been diagnosed with lung cancer but I never thought it would be my dad that would have it. My grandmother went through alot when she had cancer and I don't ever want to see my father go through that. They had tried alot to help save her. The chemo and radiation that they tried to treat the cancer with, but all that did was make her very sick. As she got worse, she decided that she wanted to spend the last part of her life with the ones that she loved. She eventually went home and lived her life the best she could. At the end of it, she was in so much pain that she had to be put back in the hospital. She was given morphine and she was still in pain. She ended up dying on July 4th. Seeing her die in so much pain, makes me hope and pray that my father never has to go through that. Now every day that goes by my family and I wonder if my father has cancer or how long my father will actually be around, and pray that he wont have to go through what my grandmother went through.

Why:

This particular essay motivated me to research what asebestos actually was and how it causes cancer. My father being told that he will be diagnosed with cancer and not being able to help him really made me think and ask alot of questions. I wanted to write about this because I want to know different questions about how asbestos causes cancer. The following questions that I would like to be able to answer by the end of this is

1. How many people get cancer from this material called asbestos?
2. Does asbestos cause lung cancer, if so how many people are diagnosed with it yearly?
3. How many people die from lung cancer and how many survive?
4. How does asbestos acutally cause lung cancer?
5. What are the signs that the material has caused cancer?

I am hopping by having these particular questions answered than maybe I will have a better understanding on how the material that my father got into causes cancer and know what the signs are that he may have it so it could possibly be caught in time.