Asbestos exposure: what it means, what to do (1978)

This was not a research study but a National Cancer Institute public-information booklet, 'Asbestos Exposure: What it means, what to do' (DHEW Publication No. (NIH) 78-1594). It reported no new data and named no specific asbestos fiber types. Citing unnamed earlier studies of workers heavily exposed in the past, it stated that lung cancer caused up to 25 percent of their deaths, compared with a 4 to 5 percent lifetime risk in the general population. In those studies, some 7 percent died of asbestosis and 7 to 10 percent of mesothelioma. It said asbestos workers who smoked had been 30 to 90 times more likely to develop lung cancer than nonexposed nonsmokers. It reported asbestos-related diseases in some shipyard workers exposed for as little as a month or two. It also stated there was some evidence that family members of heavily exposed workers faced an increased risk of mesothelioma and perhaps other asbestos-related diseases. It stated that many exposed workers, perhaps most, may suffer no apparent ill effects, and it advised exposed people to see a doctor and not smoke.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

From J-M's medical library

This copy comes from the Johns-Manville medical library. It was among the papers J-M kept in its medical library without an index entry.