I SEARCH PAPER

DAMAGE THAT ASBESTOS CAUSES
And how it affect’s me.





By:
Katie Ireland






English101,
November 12, 2008
John Goldfine

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Summary……………………………………….
Background…………………………………….
Why I’m Writing………………………………..
What I Know……………………………………
The Search…………………………………….
What I’ve Learned…………………………….
The Future…………………………………….
List of Sources………………………………..












THE SUMMARY
A couple of years ago when I found out that my Dad had got into a type of material called asbestos, I have wondered what type of material it is, what it’s used for, and what damages it does to the body. Once my Dad got into the material he had to go see a doctor and let him know about what he got into. After the information my father was told, I really started wondering what damages it does to the body; so I decided to write my I-search paper about the “the dangers of asbestos and how it affects me.” I am determined to find all the information that I need to answer questions that I have on the condition that my father may develop.








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 a lot when she had cancer and I don't ever want to see my father go through that. They had tried a lot to help save her. The chemo and radiation that they tried to treat the cancer with, but all that did was made her very sick, and 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 won’t have to go through what my grandmother went through.















WHY I’M WRITING
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 do people get exposed to cancer?2. What types of cancer’s develop due to asbestos?
3. How many people suffer from lung cancer due to asbestos?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.




WHAT I KNOW
I know that asbestos is a material that shows up in industries, plants, mills and some construction sites. I also know that asbestos is exposed to people through ingestion. Asbestos is a harmful material that has been banned to use, because it causes harm to the body, if you are exposed to it. Asbestos can cause cancers, but I am not sure what types of cancers. What I need to find out is what types of cancers are caused by this material, how are people exposed to it, how asbestos causes cancer, what are the signs that you have been exposed to it, and an estimate number of how many people suffer from cancer due to asbestos. I also know that a lot of the times before the doctor can catch that an individual who was exposed to this material has cancer, it’s too late.








THE SEARCH
Once I decided to write about asbestos I figured that the internet would be best source to get information. I went to google and typed in” What harms does asbestos cause?” and it brought me this website http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/content/PED_1_3X_Asbestos.asp. That is where I found most of my information. This website was very useful to me, and this is the main website that I used to find all my information from. It explained what asbestos is, how you are exposed to it, how asbestos is causes cancer and the types of cancers that it causes, and it also shows studies done on animals that has been done to prove the theory of how asbestos causes cancer.
I thought that this website would be a good source to collect my information because it’s a website that the American Cancer Society created, so I knew that the information would be accurate. This website was a great source of information for me, and I will remember to use this website the next time I would like to find out additional information on the material asbestos.
After gathering the information I needed off that website, I went back to google and typed in “signs of being exposed to asbestos”. The site that I used to gather my information was http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/content/PED_1_3X_Asbestos.asp. This website was a good source for information because it gave me the symptoms of how you know when you are developing stages of cancers, which gives the symptoms of how individuals was exposed to asbestos.
For my last source of information I needed, I went back to google and typed in the “symptoms of mesothelioma” and it brought me to a useful site http://www.mesolink.org/resources/symptoms-of-mesothelioma.html. I learnt a lot off from this site, and it gave me great information, to use in my paper. I would recommend this website to others who may be researching the same topic as I am.













WHAT I’VE LEARNED
When I began my research paper on “Asbestos” I wasn’t well educated about this material, so I thought it was going to be hard to research and write about. The only thing I really knew about asbestos was it was a material that is found in mills that causes a long term illness. I wasn’t sure about what kind of long term illness, or the symptoms that goes along with illnesses. After doing research on this topic for a couple of weeks, I learnt more and more about what asbestos was, and what problems my father could run into down the road.
Asbestos is names given to multiple types of fibrous materials that have are used for things like thermal insulation, chemical and stability, and also high tensile strength. The three common types of asbestos are a) chrysotile, b) amosite and c) crocidolite.
Asbestos is divided into two main groups called serpentine and amphibole.
Serpentines have sheet or layered structure. The main group in serpentines is chrysotile which makes up about 90%-5% of all asbestos that is contained in buildings, in the United States. Amphiboles have a chain liked structure. There are five types of asbestos in this group. The five types are
1. Acronym which is for mines in South Africa.
2. Amosite or “brown asbestos” is the second material that is found in building materials.
3. Crocidolite or “blue asbestos” which is found in specialized high temperature places.
Anthophyllite, tremolite, and actinolite are rare and found mainly in contaminants in other minerals. Asbestos can be found throughout the world, and it is still mined in Australia, Canada, South Africa, and the former Soviet Union.
Many individuals are exposed to asbestos by inhaling the fibers that are in the air. Asbestos can enter the body through ingestion, which may happen when people eat or contaminated food and liquids such as water. The heaviest exposures of asbestos are in industries and in mills that contain asbestos. The fibers from asbestos is carried on your clothes, which than can be inhaled by others in the household. Asbestos can be detected in water supplies that are caused by natural causes or from old mill ceiling and or walls breaking off and getting into the supply. People may also be exposed to asbestos by the outdoor air caused by the result of erosion of asbestos-baring rock. Europe, Asia, and Latin America have more than 70% of asbestos exposed in their areas, which is harmful to the people in those areas.
Asbestos causes long term illnesses such as cancers called
· Lung cancer- Inhaling asbestos has been proven to cause lung cancer. 1 in 7 people who has been exposed to asbestos ends up developing lung cancer. The higher the exposure to asbestos, than the higher risk of getting lung cancer. Workers who have been exposed to asbestos and smoke increases their chance of developing lung cancer and worker who do not smoke reduce their risk of getting lung cancer up to about 5 years.
· Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer that affects the thin membranes lining the abdomen and chest. Mesothelioma is closely linked with asbestos; most cases of mesothelioma result from direct occupational asbestos exposure. This cancer has been known to occur not only in the workers but in also the family and people around the neighborhood. It’s estimated that a third of cases in the United States is due to non-occupational exposure. This cancer is not increased by smoking unlike lung cancer.
· Asbestosis is a serious, progressive, long-term non-cancer disease of the lungs. It is caused by inhaling asbestos fibers that irritate lung tissues and cause the tissues to scar. The scarring makes it hard for oxygen to get into the blood. Symptoms of asbestosis include shortness of breath and a dry, crackling sound in the lungs while inhaling. There is no effective treatment for asbestosis.
Some ways of knowing that a long term illness is occurring and an individual has been exposed to asbestos is, a individual may start feeling shortness of breath, hear a dry, crackling sound when inhaling, coughing, change in breath, chest pains that occur all the time, anemia, hoarseness, and other types of symptoms may occur.
Some of my questions that I would of liked to know about asbestos I couldn’t find, but the majority of my questions were answered.

THE FUTURE
My i-search paper taught me a lot of things about asbestos and it made me realize what to expect when symptoms occur with my father. By researching this topic I feel that I am more educated about things that could occur with my father later down the road. I have never really realized how in depth some materials really are, and how much harm just a building material can cause to the people in the community. I am glad that I have more knowledge about asbestos and what types of harms it causes to individuals bodies because now I can inform my father of what I have learned about it and also my family. I think that in the future when they find out what types of harm the asbestos has done to my father, than I will be able to talk to the doctors and ask a lot of questions that maybe I don’t know now, but I know that I will be able to understand a lot of what he would be informing us about because of where I researched this topic.








BIBLIOGRAPHY
“Asbestos” American Cancer Society Inc. 2008
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/content/PED_1_3X_Asbestos.asp
“Asbestos and Asbestos Health Effects.” Tuesday, September 23, 2008.
http://www.epa.gov/asbestos/pubs/help.html
“Symptoms of Mesothelioma.” 2007
http://www.mesolink.org/resources/symptoms-of-mesothelioma.html