Most people that are diagnosed with mesothelioma have been exposed to asbestos in the workplace. One interesting study on point is called, "Mesothelioma and lung tumors attributable to asbestos among petroleum workers" by Valerio Gennaro, MD, Murray M. Finkelstein, MD, Marcello Ceppi, DSc, Vincenzo Fontana, DSc, Fabio Montanaro, DSc, Alessandra Perrotta, DSc, Riccardo Puntoni, DSc, Stefania Silvano, MD - American Journal of Industrial Medicine Volume 37 Issue 3, Pages 275 - 282. Here is an excerpt: "Abstract - Background - Asbestos exposure has been definitively found to be associated with both mesothelioma and lung cancer. Nevertheless, in the overall population of oil refinery workers potentially exposed to asbestos, many studies clearly show a definitely increased risk of mesothelioma, but no proven excess of lung cancer after comparison to the general population. Through the presentation of new data and the re-appraisal of two recent and independent epidemiological studies conducted in Liguria, Italy, and Ontario, Canada, we attempt to shed light on this apparently paradoxical finding. - Methods - Lung cancer mortality was studied among maintenance workers exposed to asbestos, and among two other subgroups of refinery employees: blue collar and white collar workers. The comparison with blue collar workers was performed in order to take into account the role of healthy worker effect, smoking habit, and the socioeconomic level. The comparison with white collar workers was performed to control for other occupational lung carcinogens.

Results and Conclusions - Results reveal a consistency between the two studies and show that 96-100% of the mesotheliomas and 42-49% of the lung tumors arising among maintenance workers were attributable to asbestos exposure.

Another interesting study is called, "Role of Oxyradicals in Mutagenicity and DNA Damage Induced by Crocidolite Asbestos in Mammalian Cells" by An Xu, Li-Jun Wu, Regina M. Santella, and Tom K. Hei - Cancer Res December 1, 1999 59; 5922. Here is an excerpt: "Abstract - Crocidolite, one of the most carcinogenic forms of asbestos, is mutagenic in cultured mammalian cells when assayed using a system that can detect multilocus deletions. In the present study, we examined the effect of buthionine sulfoximine (BSO) on mutation frequency and the formation of 8- hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) in human-hamster hybrid (AL) cells induced by crocidolite fibers in an attempt to determine the role of oxyradicals in mediating fiber mutagenesis. BSO, a competitive inhibitor of the enzyme ³-glutamyl cysteine synthetase, depleted nonprotein sulfhydryls to