Alimta (pemetrexed for injection)
Alimta is a new cancer drug used to treat malignant pleural mesothelioma. Alimta is given with cisplatin, another anti-cancer medicine.

Abatement
Removal or controlling release of asbestos fibers. Includes operations and maintenance (O & M), encapsulation, enclosure, and removal.

Recommended Exposure Limit (REL)
A National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) time-weighted average (TWA) concentrations for up to a 10-hour workday during a 40-hour workweek.

Hazardous Air Pollutants
Air pollutants that are not covered by ambient air quality standards but which, as defined in the Clean Air Act, may reasonably be expected to cause or contribute to irreversible illness or death. Such pollutants include asbestos, beryllium, mercury, benzene, coke oven emissions, radionuclides, and vinyl chloride.

Mesothelioma
A rare malignant tumor of the lung membrane which lines the chest and abdominal cavity. Malignant mesothelioma is a cancerous tumor of the pleura (lining of the lung and chest cavity) or peritoneum (lining of the abdomen) that is almost always caused by sustained exposure to asbestos.

Asbestos
A general term applied to certain polysilicate fibrous minerals displaying similar physical characteristics although differing in composition. The most common asbestos mineral (over 95% of U.S. production) is chrysotile, a variety of serpentine, a metamorphic mineral.

Serpentine
In the asbestos varieties, the brucite and silicate layers bend into tubers that produce the fibers. Chrysotile asbestos is a fibrous member of the serpentine group. "Serpentine" comes from mottled shades of green on massive varieties, suggestive of snake markings.

Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL)
An Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) allowable exposure level in workplace air averaged over an 8-hour shift of a 40 hour workweek.

Crocidolite
A type of asbestos in the amphibole group; it is also known as blue asbestos.

Bronchial Lung Cancer
Malignant tumor of the bronchial tubes, this disease is more common than Asbestosis & Fibrosis.