Asbestos bodies in lung parenchyma in relation to ingestion and inhalation of mineral fibers

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos bodies in lung parenchyma in relation to ingestion and inhalation of mineral fibers, by O. Auerbach, E.C. Hammond, I.J. Selikoff, et al (Environmental Research, 1977).

The study

• Authors: O. Auerbach, E.C. Hammond, I.J. Selikoff, V.R. Parks, H.D. Kaslow, L. Garfinkel
• Journal: Environmental Research
• Published: 1977;14(2):286-304
• Cited by: 13 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Summary of the article

After it became known in 1973 that Duluth, Minnesota tap water was heavily contaminated with amphibole (cummingtonite-grunerite) fibers from a taconite processing plant that opened in 1955, the authors asked whether ingested fibers reached the lungs and formed asbestos bodies. Using light microscopy, they counted asbestos bodies in 20 mm3 samples of autopsy lung tissue, ashed on specially designed grid slides and examined in coded random order. The subjects were 282 Duluth women from two hospitals who had lived in the city at least 15 years and had no occupational exposure, and who died in 1972-1973 (96), 1966-1967 (66), 1960-1961 (54) or 1953-1955 (66). They were compared with 96 age-matched New York City women. Men exposed at work, men living within half a mile of a Paterson, New Jersey amosite factory (19) and 19 age-matched New York men were also studied. No definite asbestos bodies were found in 33.3% of Duluth women who died in 1972-1973, compared with 24.0% to 30.3% in the other groups. Mean counts did not rise over time. For definite plus probable bodies, New York women had more in 58 of 96 pairs (P < 0.02). Paterson neighborhood men averaged 20.3 definite bodies versus 8.9 for New York men, which was not statistically significant. The authors concluded that drinking Duluth water did not greatly increase light-visible asbestos bodies in the lung. They stated that the study gave no evidence about smaller fibers.

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In plain English

The authors examined autopsy lung tissue to see whether drinking Duluth, Minnesota tap water had increased asbestos bodies (coated fibers visible by light microscope) in the lungs. The water contained amphibole fibers of the cummingtonite-grunerite series from taconite ore tailings discharged into Lake Superior. For each of 282 Duluth women who died between 1953 and 1973, and of 96 New York City women age-matched to the 96 Duluth women who died in 1972-1973, a standard 20 cubic millimeters of paraffin-embedded lung tissue was ashed and examined under code. Of these 1972-1973 Duluth women, 33.3% had no definite asbestos bodies, more than in any other group. New York women had more definite plus probable bodies than these Duluth women, a statistically significant difference. Men who had lived within half a mile of an amosite factory in Paterson, New Jersey averaged 20.3 definite bodies, versus 8.9 in New York men; the difference was not statistically significant. The authors concluded that the water did not greatly increase light-visible asbestos bodies. They said the study gave no evidence about whether smaller fibers entered the bloodstream.

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: Comparative autopsy study. Asbestos bodies were counted by light microscopy in ashed lung tissue taken routinely at autopsy. A standard 20 mm3 of paraffin-embedded tissue was used per subject, and slides were labeled only by a randomized serial number.
• Who was studied: 438 autopsy subjects in total.
• Duluth women, all of whom had lived in Duluth at least 15 years, used city water, and had no known occupational asbestos exposure: Group A, 96 who died 1972-1973; Group B, 66 who died 1966-1967; Group C, 54 who died 1960-1961; Group D, 66 who died 1953-1955.
• Group E: 96 New York City women who died 1966-1968, age-matched to Group A.
• Men: Group F, 8 Paterson amosite factory workers; Group G, 14 insulation workers; Group H, 19 men who lived near the Paterson factory; Group I, 19 New York City men age-matched to Group H.
• Exposure: Ingestion of Duluth drinking water contaminated with amphibole fibers of the cummingtonite-grunerite series from a taconite ore processing plant at Silver Bay. For comparison, the study also included:
• Paterson factory workers exposed to amosite (grunerite) while employed for 2 months to 2 years
• insulation workers exposed to chrysotile and amosite for 25 to 52 years
• men with neighborhood exposure near the amosite factory
• Main results:
  • No definite asbestos bodies were found in 33.3% of Group A (Duluth 1972-1973). The comparable figures were 24.0% for New York women, 30.3% for Duluth 1966-1967, 24.1% for Duluth 1960-1961 and 25.8% for Duluth 1953-1955.
  • The mean number of definite asbestos bodies was 8.21 in New York women (Group E) and 6.54 in Duluth 1972-1973 women (Group A). The difference was not statistically significant.
  • No definite or probable asbestos bodies were found in 9.4% of Group E, 21.9% of Group A, 19.7% of Group B, 13.0% of Group C and 18.2% of Group D.
  • Counting definite plus probable bodies in the age-matched pairs, the New York woman had more in 58 of 96 pairs and the Duluth 1972-1973 woman had more in 34 pairs. The authors reported this difference as statistically significant.
  • Paterson neighborhood men (Group H) had a mean of 20.3 definite asbestos bodies, compared with 8.9 in New York men (Group I). This difference was based on 19 pairs and was not statistically significant.
  • Among the Paterson amosite factory workers (Group F), one slide may have had no more than about 50 asbestos bodies. All the others had well over 100, and two probably had at least 1000.
  • For the insulation workers (Group G), accurate counts could not be made. Three sections perhaps contained fewer than 1000 asbestos bodies, and the others contained a large number.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that drinking the contaminated Duluth water did not result in a great increase in asbestos bodies large enough to be seen by light microscope. They said that no further inferences are justified, and that the study provides no evidence on whether smaller fibers enter the bloodstream. On neighborhood exposure, they said the findings were not inconsistent with the hypothesis that more asbestos fibers in the Paterson neighborhood were accompanied by more asbestos bodies in lung tissue.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Light microscopy could not detect asbestos bodies too small to be seen.
  • Negative findings would not rule out submicroscopic fibers entering the bloodstream, or an increased cancer risk.
  • The planned search for uncoated fibers in tissue had to be abandoned because the formalin used to preserve the specimens had been diluted with contaminated tap water.
  • The date when Duluth water first became appreciably contaminated was not known.
  • Some slides were of very poor quality, and clumps of bodies allowed only crude estimates.
  • The neighborhood comparison was based on only 19 pairs of men.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Asbestos Bodies, Parenchyma, Mineral Fiber, Amphibole Group, Cummingtonite-Grunerite, Taconite, Autopsy, Occupational Exposure.

Related studies

• Asbestos bodies in bronchoalveolar lavage in relation to asbestos bodies and asbestos fibres in lung parenchyma — A. Karjalainen, R. Piipari, et al. (1996)
• Presence of asbestos bodies in organs other than the lung — O. Auerbach, A.S. Conston, et al. (1980)
• Inhalation toxicity of mineral particles: critical appraisal of endpoints and study design — H. Muhle, I. Mangelsdorf (2003)
• Asbestos bodies and pleural plaques in human lungs at necropsy — I. Hägerstrand, B. Seifert (1973)
• Prevalence of "asbestos" bodies in human lungs at necropsy — T.E. Dicke, B. Naylor (1969)
• Mineral fibres, fibrosis, and asbestos bodies in lung tissue from deceased asbestos cement workers — M. Albin, L. Johansson, et al. (1990)

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