It may be splitting hairs, but I have to point out that mesothelioma is contracted from a natural substance - asbestos. Asbestos is a mineral. Yes, asbestos fibers are incorporated into a number of manufactured products, especially those used for insulation and fire protection, but asbestos itself is mined naturally, from rock.

Perhaps most people are not going to encounter asbestos in its more natural form, but it's an important distinction.

Hundreds of thousands of people are still exposed to asbestos every day in America, both in its more natural form as well as in products. The natural exposure is evidenced by the situation in Libby, Montana, where for years people brought home discarded gravel from the mines, all of it full of asbestos fibers, and used it everywhere.

Asbestos is still not completely banned in the United States! It can still be found in common household products, and even some toys. This is not a closed subject.

Right now, around the world, asbestos is a looming problem. In South Africa, people who live around now-closed asbestos mining sites encounter asbestos dust and fibers in the roads they walk every day, in the walls of their homes and schools, made with mud full of asbestos, pretty much in every surface. The human disaster pending there is unimaginable.

The real problem in the United States is how cancer research is funded, which seems haphazard at best.

In the case of mesothelioma and other lung cancers, lack of funding is combined with a stigma that the people suffering from this disease are either out to make a dollar or they "brought it on themselves" by smoking.

Lung cancer is still the most underfunded cancer research area in the United States.

Research works, helping to establish effective methods of early detection and new treatments. Thanks to research, breast cancer survival rates now top 80%.

Lung cancer survival still sits around 15% and there is no widely accepted method for screening.

I am certainly not suggesting we close the door on one cancer research and focus only on another. But why isn't the American public OUTRAGED by this? Where is a unified effort to fund cancer research across the board?

Every year, lung cancer kills more men and women each year than breast, prostate, colon, kidney, melanoma and liver cancers combined.

This IS a national health crisis, and SHOULD BE a national health priority.

For more information about mesothelioma, visit www.mymeso.org. Visit the Lung Cancer Alliance at www.lungcanceralliance.org for more information about how you can speak out for lung cancer research funding.