How Asbestos and Smoking Together
Impact the Lungs:
“Cancer cures smoking.” “Be smart; don’t start.” “Everyone has the right to clean air.” Many of us grew up with these slogans as part of a concerted effort to decrease the number of smokers in the United States. It worked! The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 13.8% of Americans smoked in 2018, down from 20.9% in 2005.Moreover, many adults who still smoke want to quit. Clearly, we’ve all gotten the message that smoking and lung cancer can kill you, but we also know that our lungs can often repair themselves somewhat if you stop smoking. Despite all of this, smoking is still the number one cause of preventable death in the U.S. But what happens if your job potentially exposed you to asbestos and you are also a smoker?
How Smoking Impacts the Lungs
Smoking causes lung damage by harming the airway and the small air sacs in your lungs called alveoli:
- Smoking impairs the lungs’ ability to clean. Tiny, brush-like cilia that sweep particles away from the lungs, called alveoli, line your airway. Smoking damages the cilia in your airway, inhibiting their ability to clear foreign particles out before they reach the lungs.
- Smoking increases inflammation and scarring in the lungs. Smoking and the foreign particles introduced into your lungs cause lung tissue to become inflamed and eventually scar.
- Smoking reduces the lungs’ ability to absorb oxygen. As smoking damages the alveoli and creates scar tissue, the lungs’ ability to absorb oxygen decreases, making breathing more difficult.
How Asbestos and Smoking Impact the Lungs
While we all know smoking is bad for you, when combined with asbestos exposure, smoking is even more deadly. Asbestos is a fibrous mineral often used in the U.S. in building materials, insulation, and even clothing until the early 80s. When asbestos fibers are disturbed, they can be inhaled or ingested. While occupational asbestos exposure on its own can increase the rate of lung cancer five times, the death rate for smokers combined with asbestos exposure is 28 times higher than for non-smokers.Asbestos has some effects on the lungs that are similar to smoking. When you inhale asbestos, these fibers can enter the lungs and the alveoli, causing inflammation and scarring. Over time this scarring can inhibit the flexible lung tissue, preventing it from absorbing oxygen and leading to difficulty breathing. Asbestos exposure can also lead to mesothelioma, a cancer of the pleural lining of many organs of the body. Mesothelioma is most often found initially in the pleural lining of the lungs.While lung and airway tissues can heal somewhat once a person stops smoking, the effects of asbestos damage are irreversible. Together, smoking and asbestos exposure are deadly.
