Mesothelioma is usually diagnosed in the fifth to seventh decades of life, with a strong male predominance where occupational exposure to asbestos is involved.5 There are approximately 2,500 new cases of mesothelioma annually in the United States, of which 2,000 are in men and 500 are in women.5,6 The incidence in the United States appears to be rising, mainly in men aged greater than 75 years, with the maximum lifetime risk in the from 1925 to 1929 birth cohort of men.5 The incidence in women and in men < 75 years of age appears to have been stable since 1983.5 This coincides with restrictions and regulations of the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, enacted in the 1970s, regarding uses and permissible exposure limits for asbestos in the workplace.5 The incidence of mesothelioma is also rising in Europe, from 5,000 men dying in 1998 to a projected 9,000 men dying by 2018, with the highest incidence in the from 1945 to 1950 birth cohort of men. The International Labour Organisation has taken the incidence of asbestos-related cancer in Finland and extrapolated it to the world worker population, to produce an estimate that at least 100,000 and maybe as many as 140,000 workers die each year from asbestos exposures resulting in cancer. When estimates from this and other studies are extrapolated to include the world population, it has been projected that the asbestos cancer epidemic will cause 5-10 million deaths, past and present

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