March 13th, 2006
Data has been released that shows that the asbestos related death rate among women living near a former Kubota Corp. factory is significantly higher than the norm. In fact, researchers found that the death rate was over 50 times higher among this particular group. The factory used to make asbestos products, and asbestos is a substance that is a known carcinogenic.
One of the researchers involved in the study stated: "We have not seen such a large and concentrated outbreak of mesothelioma, even on an international scale." Researchers confirmed that it is likely that the levels of asbestos in the air around the factory would have been very high due to the nature of the products manufactured there when it was in operation.
The research involved studying people that had been living in the local area between 1957 and 1975. Studies were carried out on mesothelioma patients that had lived near the factory but had never actually worked with asbestos, many of whom had already passed away. It was concluded that those women living within 500 yards of the factory between those periods could be 18 times more likely to contract the disease than the average person.
The increase in death rate for men who had never worked with asbestos was lower than for women, but this was due to the fact that more men in the area contracted the disease through working with asbestos.
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