Asbestos-associated disease in United States shipyards

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos-associated disease in United States shipyards, by I.J. Selikoff, E.C. Hammond (CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, 1978).

The study

• Authors: I.J. Selikoff, E.C. Hammond
• Journal: CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians
• Published: 1978;28(2):87-99
• Cited by: 71 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. 002150).

In plain English

This special report from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the American Cancer Society examined asbestos disease in U.S. shipyards. Its main new data came from chest X-rays of 1,000 volunteer workers at a shipyard in Groton, Connecticut. They worked in many trades, including boilermakers, pipefitters, insulators, painters, welders and electricians. About half showed lung or pleural changes of the kind regularly seen after asbestos exposure. That was 274 of 636 workers (43.1 percent) less than 20 years from first exposure, and 185 of 364 (50.8 percent) 20 or more years from first exposure. Among 303 workers who started in 1961 or later, 115 (38.0 percent) had abnormal X-rays, compared with 85 of 166 (51.2 percent) who started in 1950 or before. No trade was free of changes. The report also presented deaths among 17,800 insulation workers in the United States and Canada followed from 1967 to 1977. Lung cancer caused 485 deaths, against 105.97 expected. The authors concluded that asbestos exposure strong enough to cause significant X-ray changes had been common at Groton. They said the extent of future cancer risk was not known. They cautioned that the volunteers might not represent the whole workforce.

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: Special report including a cross-sectional chest X-ray survey of shipyard workers, plus mortality data from a prospectively followed cohort of insulation workers and a discussion of earlier shipyard reports by others
• Who was studied: 1,000 volunteer workers at a shipyard in Groton, Connecticut, mostly those whose employment had begun 15 or more years earlier; separately, 17,800 asbestos insulation workers in the United States and Canada followed from January 1, 1967 to January 1, 1977
• Exposure: Employment in shipbuilding and ship repair across many trades (boilermakers, pipefitters, insulators, painters, carpenters, welders, electricians, outside machinists and less common crafts); fiber types were not named
• Main results:
  • Overall, about half of the Groton workers examined showed X-ray changes in the lungs and pleura of the sort regularly seen after asbestos exposure
  • Among Groton workers less than 20 years from onset of exposure, 274 of 636 (43.1 percent) had some abnormality, compared with 185 of 364 (50.8 percent) among those 20 or more years from onset
  • Parenchymal (lung tissue) changes were seen in 29.6 percent of the under-20-year group and 36.8 percent of the 20-or-more-year group. Pleural changes were seen in 23.1 percent and 29.7 percent respectively
  • Among 303 Groton workers who began work in 1961 or later, 115 (38.0 percent) had X-ray abnormalities, compared with 85 of 166 (51.2 percent) who began in 1950 or before
  • X-ray changes were found in every trade examined at Groton
  • Among the 17,800 insulation workers, 2,270 deaths were observed, including 485 from lung cancer, 66 from pleural mesothelioma and 109 from peritoneal mesothelioma
  • Expected deaths for the insulation workers, based on U.S. white male mortality rates, were 1,660.96 from all causes, 319.90 from all cancer and 105.97 from lung cancer
  • In the insulation worker data, most mesotheliomas and excess lung cancers occurred 30 or more years from onset of exposure
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that past asbestos exposure strong enough to cause significant asbestos-related X-ray changes was common at the Groton shipyard. They said this raises the question of increased future risk of asbestos-associated cancers, the extent of which is not now known
• Limitations the authors state:
  • All Groton workers examined were volunteers, and the authors could not know whether they represented the whole workforce or their own trade
  • Estimates for the less common crafts were less certain because fewer workers in them were examined
  • Smoking habits were not taken into account in the expected deaths for the insulation workers

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Shipyards and maritime work.

Related studies

• Asbestos disease in United States shipyards — I.J. Selikoff, R. Lilis, et al. (1979)
• Recent geographic patterns of lung cancer and mesothelioma mortality rates in 49 shipyard counties in the United States, 1970-94 — A. Jemal, D. Grauman, et al. (2000)
• Lung cancer mortality in the United States: shipyard correlations — W.J. Blot, J.F. Fraumeni (1979)
• Asbestotic radiological abnormalities among United States merchant marine seamen — I.J. Selikoff, R. Lilis, et al. (1990)
• Asbestos related abnormalities among United States merchant marine seamen — P.J. Barrett (1990)
• Radiographic search for asbestos-related disease in a naval shipyard — J.S. Felton (1979)

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