Asbestos and arsenic have been singled out because their impact continues to take a serious health toll on Michigan's residents. Michigan has the nation's largest arsenic-contaminated water table, located primarily in the southeastern part of the state, and an estimated 300,000 homes with asbestos-contaminated attic insulation.

Even low levels of exposure to asbestos can cause asbestosis -- a potentially fatal disease of the lungs -- as well as lung cancer and mesothelioma, an extremely aggressive cancer of the covering of the lungs and intestines. Smokers are 50 times more likely to develop lung cancer if they also are exposed to asbestos. In addition, colon cancer has been associated with asbestos exposure. There is a latency period from time of first exposure to clinical identification of disease of 15-40 years. Contrary to popular belief, asbestos has never been banned in the United States.

SOURCE Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute