Asbestos as a hazard to health. Fact and speculation

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos as a hazard to health. Fact and speculation, by W.C. Cooper (Archives of Environmental Health, 1967).

The study

• Author: W.C. Cooper
• Journal: Archives of Environmental Health
• Published: 1967;15(3):285-90
• Cited by: 11 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 001475).

In plain English

This article is a review, read as a talk at a 1967 meeting of the American Academy of Occupational Medicine, in which the author weighed published and some unpublished evidence on asbestos and health. The author wrote that asbestosis found in insulating workers suggested that the recommended average dust level of 5 million particles per cubic foot may be too high. The author called increased lung cancer in many groups of asbestos-exposed workers a fact, but judged the evidence on different fiber types unconvincing, with chrysotile less certainly implicated. For mesothelioma of the pleura and peritoneum, evidence was described as strongest for crocidolite, especially Cape blue crocidolite, and a Finnish report was cited as suggesting anthophyllite was not a problem in this respect. Reviewed autopsy series found ferruginous ('asbestos') bodies in many lungs, such as 26.4% of 500 consecutive autopsies in Cape Town, but no published study had shown whether the bodies were asbestos. The author concluded that links between asbestos and cancers of the lung, pleura and peritoneum had become increasingly convincing.

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: Narrative review, originally a talk read before the 19th annual meeting of the American Academy of Occupational Medicine (San Francisco, February 1967)
• Who was studied: No study population of its own. The author reviewed published epidemiologic studies of asbestos workers, pathology and animal studies, and autopsy series of lungs from several cities (for example Cape Town, Miami, Pittsburgh, Johannesburg, Finland, Montreal, San Francisco). Some unpublished observations were also included.
• Exposure: Asbestos minerals of commerce: chrysotile, crocidolite, amosite and anthophyllite, with tremolite and actinolite described as less important. The review also covered dust levels measured in million particles per cubic foot (mppcf).
• Main results:
  • From reports on insulating workers in which asbestosis appeared even though average dust counts were near or below 5 mppcf, the author suggested that a time-weighted average of 5 mppcf may be too high.
  • The author described an increased incidence of lung cancer in many groups of asbestos-exposed workers as a fact.
  • The author judged the evidence on the relative importance of different asbestos types for lung cancer not convincing, with chrysotile less certainly implicated.
  • For diffuse pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma, the author stated that the evidence was strongest for crocidolite, especially Cape blue crocidolite.
  • Citing a Finnish report by Raunio, the author wrote that anthophyllite was strongly suggested not to be a problem with respect to these tumors. In that report, high prevalences of pleural calcification in anthophyllite mining areas were not associated with more lung cancer or malignant pleural or peritoneal tumors.
  • In autopsy series reviewed by the author, ferruginous ('asbestos') bodies were found in 26.4% of 500 consecutive autopsies in Cape Town (Thomson et al, 1963).
  • Ferruginous bodies were found in 27.2% of 400 autopsies in Miami (reported in 1966).
  • In none of the small autopsy series that tried to relate the bodies to diagnosis was there any apparent association with malignancies or other specific causes of death.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that present dust-control standards did not appear adequate to prevent asbestosis over a working lifetime, and that associations between asbestos minerals and malignancies of the lungs, pleura and peritoneum had become increasingly convincing. The author also concluded that the mineral fibers behind ferruginous bodies in the general population needed positive identification before their health significance could be estimated.

Topics

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

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