Asbestos and its lethal legacy

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos and its lethal legacy, by G. Tweedale (Nature Reviews. Cancer, 2002).

The study

• Author: G. Tweedale
• Journal: Nature Reviews. Cancer
• Published: 2002;2(4):311-5
• Type of article: Review
• Cited by: 45 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Asbestos has become the leading cause of occupationally related cancer death, and the second most fatal manufactured carcinogen (after tobacco). In the public's mind, asbestos has been a hazard since the 1960s and 1970s. However, the knowledge that the material was a mortal health hazard dates back at least a century, and its carcinogenic properties have been appreciated for more than 50 years.

In plain English

This is a historical perspective article, not a new study. The author, based at a centre for business history, traced how knowledge that asbestos causes cancer developed, summarising earlier research and records by others. The article reported that by 1947 British factory inspectors' figures showed about 13% of asbestosis cases had lung cancer. It also reported that a 1943 industry-funded experiment found pulmonary cancer in 81.8% of a small group of eleven white mice that had inhaled asbestos dust, and that this finding went unpublished. It described Richard Doll's 1955 study of asbestos-textile workers, which estimated a lung cancer risk ten times that of the general population among those exposed for 20 years or more, and which the sponsoring company tried to suppress. It recounted a 1960 South African report linking asbestos with mesothelioma, and Irving Selikoff's finding of lung cancer at seven times the expected rate in asbestos insulators. The author concluded that awareness of the cancer risk had been hindered by powerful vested interests and bitter controversies among scientists.

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: historical perspective article reviewing the history of asbestos and cancer; it reports no new data of its own
• Who was studied: No study population. The article covers the history of the asbestos industry, its workers and the people exposed, mainly in Britain, the United States and South Africa, from the 1870s to 2001.
• Exposure: Asbestos in general, including chrysotile (white), crocidolite (blue) and amosite (brown), used in textiles, insulation and cement products. Chrysotile was the bulk of the fibre used worldwide.
• Main results:
  • The article cited UK government statistics (its reference 1) stating that more than 3,000 people in the United Kingdom die each year from asbestos-related diseases, a figure expected to probably surpass 5,000 per year by 2020.
  • By 1947 the British Factory Inspectorate had figures showing that about 13% of asbestosis cases had lung cancer (cited from the Inspectorate's report, not this article's own data).
  • In 1943 Leroy Gardner at the industry-sponsored Saranac Laboratory reported pulmonary cancer in 81.8% of a small group of eleven white mice that had inhaled asbestos dust for 15 to 24 months. According to the article, this research was not published.
  • Richard Doll's study of Turner & Newall asbestos-textile workers in Rochdale (published 1955) estimated the lung cancer risk in those exposed for 20 years or more at ten times that of the general population. The company had vetoed publication and tried to persuade the journal editor to reject the article.
  • South African research linking asbestos with mesothelioma around the Cape Province mines was published in 1960, after mining companies had suppressed a key survey report.
  • Irving Selikoff showed lung cancer incidence in asbestos insulators at seven times the expected rate, with a synergistic effect of smoking and asbestos work.
  • A table based on British death certificates for 1924 to 1964 listed 428 male asbestosis deaths, of which 141 (32.9%) had lung cancer, and 200 female asbestosis deaths, of which 28 (14.0%) had lung cancer. A few mesotheliomas (15) were included in these totals.
  • Research in the 1990s based on government data showed that most mesothelioma victims were (and would be) building workers, carpenters, electricians, metal workers and office workers.
  • In 2001 the World Trade Organization stated that there is no safe level of asbestos exposure.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that awareness of the cancer risk of asbestos had been hindered by powerful vested interests and sometimes bitter controversies among scientists, and that the health effects of asbestos products will continue for some time.

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: Carcinogenic.

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