Many studies have shown that the combination of smoking and asbestos exposure is particularly hazardous. Smokers who are also exposed to asbestos have a greatly increased risk of lung cancer. However, smoking combined with asbestos exposure does not appear to increase the risk of mesothelioma.

There are several diseases associated with asbestos exposure. Not all of them are fatal, but all damage the health and quality of life of those affected. But mesothelioma is sometimes not acknowledged to be caused by asbestos exposure. Mesothelioma of the lung is usually readily attributed to asbestos exposure. Mesothelioma of the lining of the stomach is a little less readily recognised.

Malignant mesothelioma, or sometimes called mesothelioma asbestos, is a type of deadly lung cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. Inhalation of asbestos dust is the primary means by which asbestos exposure leads to mesothelioma asbestos. This asbestos exposure led many laborers and townspeople to develop "asbestos lung cancer" (a layman's term for mesothelioma).