Asbestos-contaminated nappies and familial mesothelioma

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos-contaminated nappies and familial mesothelioma, by F.P. Li, M.G. Dreyfus, K.H. Antman (Lancet, 1989).

The study

• Authors: F.P. Li, M.G. Dreyfus, K.H. Antman
• Journal: Lancet
• Published: 1989;1(8643):909-10
• Type of article: Letter
• Cited by: 13 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. 000116).

Summary of the article

The authors described a family cluster of mesothelioma linked to household asbestos exposure. Cotton cloth sacks that had carried moulded asbestos insulation were made into diapers (nappies) for the children of an asbestos worker, an insulator. The oldest child died of mesothelioma at age 32 years. Her 29-year-old sister had been similarly exposed but remained unaffected. The mother, who had laundered the diapers and her husband's work clothes, died of mesothelioma at age 49. A maternal uncle, who had lived in the contaminated household as a teenager and worked briefly as an insulator, developed mesothelioma at age 43. The father died with asbestosis and cirrhosis of the liver at age 53. The authors noted that mesothelioma usually develops in older men three or four decades after they become asbestos workers. These long intervals suggested that the proband was exposed in childhood and her mother and uncle in early adulthood. The two women had no occupational contact with asbestos and had probably been exposed at home. The authors concluded that the diapers appeared to have been one source of exposure, which emphasised the hazard of recycling asbestos-contaminated textiles. They recommended that employers arrange educational programmes and monitor security measures to prevent removal of asbestos-contaminated materials from the worksite.

PubMed has no abstract for this study, and the article doesn't print one. We wrote this summary from the full article with the help of AI. It is not the authors' wording.

In plain English

This 1989 Lancet letter reported on a single family. The authors described an asbestos worker's family in which cotton cloth sacks that had been used to transport moulded asbestos insulation were made into diapers (nappies) for the worker's children. The oldest child died of mesothelioma at age 32. Her 29-year-old sister was similarly exposed but remained unaffected. The mother, who had laundered the diapers and her husband's work clothes, died of mesothelioma at age 49. A 43-year-old maternal uncle also developed mesothelioma. As a teenager he had lived in the household and worked briefly as an insulator. The father, an insulator, died with asbestosis and cirrhosis of the liver at age 53. The letter did not name the fiber type or where in the body the mesotheliomas arose. Citing the long delay usually seen before mesothelioma develops, the authors suggested the daughter was exposed in childhood and the mother and uncle in early adulthood, with the two women probably exposed at home. The authors concluded that the diapers appear to have been one source of exposure, emphasising the hazard of recycling asbestos-contaminated textiles.

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: Case report of a family cluster (letter to the editor)
• Who was studied: One family of an asbestos worker: the worker (an insulator), his wife, their two daughters, and the wife's brother (maternal uncle). Country and years of exposure are not stated; the authors were in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
• Exposure: Household exposure. The children wore diapers made from cotton cloth sacks that had carried moulded asbestos insulation, and the mother laundered the diapers and her husband's work clothes. The uncle lived in the household as a teenager and worked briefly as an insulator. No fiber type is named.
• Main results:
  • The oldest daughter died of mesothelioma at age 32; her 29-year-old sister was similarly exposed but remained unaffected.
  • The mother, who laundered the diapers and her husband's work clothes, died of mesothelioma at age 49.
  • A 43-year-old maternal uncle developed mesothelioma; as a teenager he had lived in the contaminated household and worked briefly as an insulator.
  • The father, an insulator, died with asbestosis and cirrhosis of the liver at age 53.
  • Based on the usual long interval before mesothelioma, the authors suggested the daughter was exposed in childhood and the mother and uncle in early adulthood. The two women had no occupational contact with asbestos and had probably been exposed at home.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the diapers appear to have been one source of exposure, emphasising the hazard of recycling asbestos-contaminated textiles. They also stated that employers should run educational programmes and monitor security to prevent removal of asbestos-contaminated materials from the worksite.

Topics

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

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Mesothelioma, Asbestos Exposure, Insulator.

Related studies

• Impact of an asbestos cement factory on mesothelioma incidence: global assessment of effects of occupational, familial, and environmental exposure — C. Mensi, L. Riboldi, et al. (2015)
• Genetic susceptibility to malignant mesothelioma and exposure to asbestos: the influence of the familial factor — D. Ugolini, M. Neri, et al. (2008)
• Familial pleural mesothelioma with environmental asbestos exposure: losses of DNA sequences by comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) — G. Serio, A. Scattone, et al. (2004)
• Incidence and familial risk of pleural mesothelioma in Sweden: a national cohort study — J. Ji, J. Sundquist, et al. (2016)
• Asbestos-related familial mesothelioma — C. Bianchi, A. Brollo, et al. (1993)
• Familial mesothelioma in first degree relatives — A.M. Kalogeraki, D.J. Tamiolakis, et al. (2013)

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