An unjustified prognosis of the number of asbestos-related lung cancer cases caused by an increase in airborne asbestos concentrations as a result of removing of asbestos-cement products

Our plain-English summary of An unjustified prognosis of the number of asbestos-related lung cancer cases caused by an increase in airborne asbestos concentrations as a result of removing of asbestos-cement products, by N. Szeszenia-Dąbrowska, B. Świątkowska (TheScientificWorldJournal, 2015).

The study

• Authors: N. Szeszenia-Dąbrowska, B. Świątkowska
• Journal: TheScientificWorldJournal
• Published: 2015;2015:264568
• Type of article: Letter, Comment
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

In plain English

This is a letter to the editor, not an original study. The authors, from the Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine in Poland, criticized a 2014 article by Hajok and colleagues. That article estimated lung cancer cases in the general Polish population from asbestos exposure during removal and disposal of asbestos-cement products. The letter's authors argued that published Polish measurements did not show high fiber levels during dismantling, or a considerable rise in outdoor air levels, provided safe and legally regulated work methods were used. They said the method was described too vaguely. They noted that the occupational cases used came from workplace exposures of 2 to 8 fibers per cubic centimetre in the 70s and 80s of the previous century, while outdoor air averaged about 500 fibers per cubic metre in an earlier survey. They argued that the article appeared to apply the high-dose occupational risk to low-dose environmental exposure without any adjustment for exposure level. The authors concluded that if the article's estimate of 14 thousand new lung cancer cases were reliable, the only conclusion would be to stop Poland's asbestos removal programme. They called the estimate unjustified.

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.

What the study did and found

• Design: Letter to the editor commenting on another published article (Hajok et al., 2014); no new data were collected
• Who was studied: No population was studied directly. The letter discusses an article that estimated lung cancer risk in the general population of Poland.
• Exposure: Asbestos fibers released during removal and disposal of asbestos-cement products in Poland. No fiber type is specified.
• Main results:
  • The authors stated that published Polish measurements, taken at work posts and in outdoor air, did not confirm high fiber concentrations during dismantling of asbestos-cement products, or a considerable increase in outdoor air concentrations, provided safe and legally regulated work methods were applied.
  • The authors stated that the criticized article and the thesis it referenced did not explain key parts of the method, including how standardized incidence rates of asbestos-related diseases were calculated.
  • Citing earlier publications, the authors noted that the occupational diseases used in the analysis resulted from exposure in the 70s and 80s of the previous century, when workplace concentrations were 2 to 8 fibers per cubic centimetre (2,000,000 to 8,000,000 fibers per cubic metre).
  • Citing earlier publications, the authors noted that mean outdoor air concentrations across Polish provinces, from 5962 samples at 1634 sites, were about 500 fibers per cubic metre, exceeding 1000 fibers per cubic metre only at a few points.
  • The authors judged that the criticized article appeared to assume the same lung cancer risk for low environmental doses as for high occupational doses, applying no coefficient for the size of exposure.
  • The authors stated that the literature has reported no cases of asbestosis among people exposed paraoccupationally or environmentally, although asbestosis makes up about 60 to 70% of occupational asbestos-related disease cases.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the prognosis was unjustified. They argued that if the article's estimate were reliable, the removal works would lead to 14 thousand new lung cancer cases, and the only conclusion would be to call for immediate cessation of the Programme for Asbestos Abatement in Poland 2009 to 2032.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Lung cancer, Mesothelioma.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Prognosis, Lung Cancer, Asbestos-Cement.

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