Warren Zevon’s ziekte te wijten aan astbest
Het stond in veel kranten vorige week: Warren Zevon, een rock and roll zanger en songwriter, stierf aan longkanker en dat was logisch: hij rookte als een ketter.
Het blijkt allemaal anders te zijn. Warren werkte in het verleden in een fabriek waarin veel astbeststof voorkwam.
De vooroordelen rond longkanker in het algemeen, zoals die nu ook weer uit de berichten in de media blijken, zijn er de oorzaak van dat de afgelopen jaren weinig of geen onderzoek naar behandeling van longkanker is gedaan.
News reports inaccurately refer to Zevon’s cause of death as “lung cancer,” and link it to his smoking habit or other aspects of his legendary rock and roll lifestyle. But mesothelioma is not strictly a lung cancer, and it is not caused by smoking. Zevon himself described the cause of mesothelioma in his song about life in “The Factory” and breathing the asbestos dust kicked up from the floor.
Twenty years ago, when Steve McQueen died of mesothelioma, news reports also blamed “lung cancer,” and missed an important opportunity to raise awareness about this asbestos-caused cancer. Lack of awareness has lead to lack of concern, and lack of research funding. Compared to many other cancers, almost no progress was made in mesothelioma treatment in the past 20 years, and Warren’s prognosis was as bleak as Steve McQueen’s was twenty years earlier.
| Early in the morning I feel a chill The factory whistle blows loud and clear I’d kill my wife or she’d kill me But we gotta go to work at the factory Five days a week at the factory Up early in the morning at the factory I’ve been working in the factory Johnny, I’ve been working in the factory Kickin’ asbestos in the factory Breathin’ that plastic in the factory Punchin’ out Chryslers in the factory Makin’ polyvinyl chloride in the factory |
