Belfast Men Launch Asbestos Group
In Belfast, Ireland, Arthur Rafferty and Brendan Whyte have started an asbestos-related illnesses support group, Asbestos Support Northern Ireland, or ASNI.
The group is, according to Rafferty, the direct result of his inability to find accurate information about his asbestos-related disease, asbestosis, after he was diagnosed. In fact, according to Rafferty, even his diagnosis was fortunate, considering the fact that he saw five doctors, all of whom failed to recognize his symptoms, before traveling to Liverpool to have asbestosis confirmed.
Rafferty, who says he contracted the disease working in shipyards for many years, is one of many who have found asbestos-related disease support largely absent in Northern Ireland, where no groups have existed before now, even though they can be found in Scotland and Wales.
The two men say they hope to act as “lifelines” to those who feel isolated by geography and a lack of organizations dealing with asbestos-related afflictions, which can range from asbestosis to lung cancers to mesothelioma.
Asbestosis, though not fatal in the same way as mesothelioma, is nonetheless a slowly debilitating respiratory ailment, similar to COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder) and emphysema, which gradually robs victims of stamina as they find it increasingly difficult to breathe – and thus increasingly difficult to perform ordinary chores like grocery shopping, walking to the mailbox to pick up the mail, and (in advanced cases) bathing or showering without assistance.
Asbestosis is the result of long exposure to asbestosis, as in the workplace. This group includes construction workers, electrical workers, firefighters, insulators, maintenance personnel, mechanics, plumbers, telephone workers and, of course, asbestos miners.
Asbestosis sufferers can find relief via postural drainage (as is recommended in cystic fibrosis), and chest percussion, also called vibration or massage, to help remove secretions from the lungs and improve breathing. Percussion can be either manual, via a cupped-hand procedure, or mechanical.
Where the above methods are insufficient, doctors can prescribe aerosol inhalants like albuterol, as used to treat asthma, and steroids. As the disease increases in severity, victims may have to receive oxygen, either via face mask or by nasal tubes, often on a continuous basis. As a last resort, some with very severe symptoms may require a lung transplant, but by that stage of the disease most patients are too debilitated to do well during or after surgery.
Asbestosis is so strikingly like COPD, including clubbing of the fingers, that the only way to diagnose it with any certainty is via an X-ray (which reveals characteristic irregular opacities around the lower lobes of the lungs and a honey-comb effect in the lobes themselves), or a CT scan, which reveals characteristic scarring, thickening and calcifications in greater detail. Pulmonary function tests, or PFTs, can show loss of lung volume, or a deficiency of air passing across the air sacs, but this, too, is typical of many lung disorders, including COPD.
Clubbing of the tips of the fingers – a symptom that also occurs with some congenital heart disorders and liver disorders – is also not specific, so one final diagnostic tool is a history of exposure to asbestos.
The ANSI, which has garnered support among a number of politicians, all of whom are helping Rafferty and Whyte obtain funds to expand the organization’s reach, is expected to assist a large number of people in Northern Ireland already exposed to the mineral and abandoned by a society that failed to advise them how to protect themselves, and then failed to provide help once they were injured.
ANSI will help by assisting asbestosis sufferers in identifying appropriate state benefits, as well as by helping them complete the required paperwork and providing representation at social service department hearings to garner more aid. The organization will also offer a drop-in center for walk-ins to find help, eliminating the need for appointment setting. Those who are too ill to leave home can also call and ask for an ANSI representative to call on them, and eventually ANSI also hopes to offer asbestosis sufferers and their caretakers, usually family members, weekend breaks or respite services.
In the meantime, Rafferty and Whyte are busy setting up an online service where those affected by asbestosis can chat with one another and find a different sort of comfort sharing stories of their disease.
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