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There is very limited evidence that exposure to asbestos could directly cause dementia in a person, including Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy Bodies, Parkinson’s, or Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD). This, despite the fact that there has been strong evidence linking dementia conditions to exposures to other toxins.

Cases of asbestos exposure victims developing dementia are limited. One of the first studies theorizing a link between the two described only ten cases.[1] All patients were males aged between 67 and 78 years old who had been exposed to asbestos within the shipbuilding industry.

Another review conducted several years later examined 48 cases where patients had asbestos related diseases and possible mental debilitation. Five of these patients showed signs of brain matter changes that could be “compatible with a primary degenerative dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.”[2]

Despite the fact that several cases of co-occurring asbestos conditions and possible dementia diagnoses exist, few if any formal cohort study reviews have been conducted analyzing the connection statistically. One of the few linking statistics comes from a 2003 study, in which nearly twice as many individuals who had a FTD diagnosis were exposed to environmental toxins compared to the control group.[3]

Accordingly, several government-backed programs meant to compensate asbestos exposure victims for occupational injuries do not recognize Alzheimer’s and other dementia conditions as a related chronic condition, including the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the European Union (EU) Commission.[4][5]

Dementia conditions like Alzheimer’s have been linked to exposure to environmental pollutants other than asbestos. A study of London residents exposed to air pollutants found that subjects living in areas with high nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations had a higher risk of dementia.[6]

Another study found that individuals who had been exposed to toxic solvents like benzene were over two times more likely to develop dementia.[7] Looking just at males, the odds increased to six times as likely!

Clearly, dementia can be attributed to exposure to toxins. The current statistical and clinical evidence that asbestos exposure can lead to dementia is scant, though. It is possible that the group of cases with both dementia and asbestos exposure could be a coincidence, but it is also possible that the link between degenerative brain disease and asbestos just hasn’t been discovered scientifically yet.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3957626

[2] http://jaapl.org/content/jaapl/20/4/383.full.pdf

[3] https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/jnnp/74/11/1574.full.pdf

[4] https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/jnnp/74/11/1574.full.pdf

[5] http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=COMPARL&reference=PE-514.951&format=PDF&language=EN&secondRef=02

[6] https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/8/9/e022404

[7] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7771442