Asbestos-Linked Cancer Deaths Are Higher Than 30 Years Ago, Even As Rates Fall

More Americans Are Dying From Asbestos Cancer Than in 1990, and Women Are Increasingly Paying the Price

A rare but deadly cancer tied to asbestos exposure has been declining in the United States for decades, but the number of Americans dying from it is higher now than 30 years ago. Survival odds have barely moved, and women in certain states are seeing their rates climb. Those are the central findings of a new study tracking the disease across all 50 states from 1990 to 2023.

Mesothelioma is a cancer that attacks the thin tissue lining the lungs and other organs. It is most often linked to asbestos exposure, particularly breathing in asbestos fibers, a once-common industrial material used in shipbuilding, construction, and insulation. Most patients survive less than a year after diagnosis. What makes it especially cruel is its long delay: it can take decades after first exposure for the cancer to appear, meaning the consequences of past asbestos use are still playing out in bodies across the country today.

Researchers publishing in JCO Global Oncology analyzed data from the Global Burden of Disease study, a massive international health database, to track mesothelioma diagnoses, deaths, and years of healthy life lost across the United States at both the national and state level, broken down by sex.

Mesothelioma Rates Are Falling, but Death Counts Are Rising

On the surface, the national trends look encouraging. Mesothelioma diagnosis rates dropped 33% between 1990 and 2023, and death rates dropped 31%. Those are real reductions, driven largely by regulations that began limiting asbestos use in the 1970s and by the gradual passing of the generation most heavily exposed in shipyards and factories.

But peel back those numbers and the picture becomes more complicated. In 1990, about 2,094 Americans were diagnosed with mesothelioma; by 2023, that figure had grown to 2,675. Deaths rose too, from 1,981 to 2,591. With a larger, older population, even a falling rate produces more actual cases.

Perhaps the most sobering finding concerns survival. Researchers measured how often the disease proves fatal to those diagnosed, and that ratio barely budged over 33 years, meaning a mesothelioma diagnosis today is no more survivable than one in 1990. Decades of medical research and newer treatments, including immunotherapy drugs approved in recent years, have not yet moved the needle at the population level.

Women and Geography Tell a Troubling Mesothelioma Story

One of the study’s most telling findings is a growing divide between men and women. Men have historically made up the overwhelming majority of mesothelioma cases, largely because they filled the industrial jobs in shipbuilding, mining, and insulation where asbestos exposure was most intense. Men have seen the steepest declines: their diagnosis rate dropped 42% and their death rate dropped roughly 41% over the study period.

Women’s trends are a different story. Nationally, the change in women’s diagnosis rate over 33 years was so small it was statistically indistinguishable from no change at all. More alarming, female diagnoses increased in 20 states and female deaths rose in 18, with the largest recent increases in South Dakota, Arkansas, Mississippi, and West Virginia.

This shift reflects a broader change in how people encounter asbestos. Researchers note that risk has moved away from primary industrial settings and toward secondary and environmental exposure, including renovation of older buildings, demolition projects, and disaster-related damage. Women who never set foot in a shipyard may encounter asbestos fibers while living or working in structures built before modern safety standards. Asbestos has never been fully banned in the United States, and it remains embedded in older homes, schools, and public infrastructure.

Mesothelioma Hot Spots Persist Across the Map

Sharp differences from state to state are completely obscured by national averages. In 2023, Maine, Alaska, Washington, and Minnesota had the highest diagnosis and death rates in the country, reflecting deep histories of shipbuilding, mining, and manufacturing tied to widespread asbestos use.

At the other end of the spectrum, Washington D.C., Hawaii, and Georgia had the lowest rates. Among women, Louisiana recorded the highest rate of years of healthy life lost to mesothelioma in 2023, a measure capturing both early death and time spent seriously ill, running nearly 55% above the national average.

Occupational asbestos exposure accounted for 95.7% of all mesothelioma deaths in 2023, essentially unchanged since 1990. That means this is, in the researchers’ framing, a largely preventable cancer. Yet because asbestos was so widely used for so long, and because the disease takes decades to emerge, the toll from past exposure will continue accumulating for years to come.

Progress Without a Cure Is Not Enough

Three decades of declining rates are worth acknowledging. Regulatory decisions made in the 1970s did reduce the number of people being poisoned by asbestos on the job. But this study makes clear the work is far from finished. More than 2,600 Americans a year are still receiving this diagnosis, survival remains poor for most patients, and in dozens of states women now face a rising burden from a disease once written off as a man’s occupational hazard. Until asbestos is fully eliminated from the built environment and medicine finds treatments that actually extend these patients’ lives, the declining rates likely won’t translate to a lower human cost.

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Disclaimer: This article is based on a peer-reviewed study and is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice. Readers with concerns about asbestos exposure or related health risks should consult a qualified medical professional.

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