What do you know about mesothelioma? It is a form of cancer that is almost always caused by previous exposure to asbestos. Most people who develop mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos particles, or have been exposed to asbestos dust and fibre in other ways, such as by washing the clothes of a family member who worked with asbestos, or by home renovation using asbestos cement products. Unlike lung cancer, there is no association between mesothelioma and smoking. Some symptoms of this cancer are shortness of breath, cough, and pain in the chest due to an accumulation of fluid in the pleural space, fatigue or anemia wheezing, hoarseness, or cough, coughing up of blood. Sometimes these symptoms will lie dormant for 20 to 50 years!