Asbestos: historical perspective

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos: historical perspective, by L. Garfinkel (CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, 1984).

The study

• Author: L. Garfinkel
• Journal: CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians
• Published: 1984;34(1):44-7
• Type of article: Historical article
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This historical commentary from a 'Classics in Oncology' series is not a new study. It traced asbestos use from antiquity; US production rose from about 6,000 tons in 1900 to 650,000 in 1975, then fell to about 300,000 by 1982. The author recounted accounts of illness from Pliny the Younger's reported comments on sick slaves who worked with asbestos to the first reference to pulmonary fibrosis in an asbestos worker, in England in 1906. The article mainly described a study by Irving Selikoff, E. Cuyler Hammond and Jacob Churg of 632 men from two asbestos insulator union locals. Hammond suggested confining analysis to men with at least 20 years' work experience. That study recorded 255 deaths from 1943 through 1962 and three cases of mesothelioma. Later papers reported that cigarette smoking acted synergistically with asbestos exposure, and that even short-term exposure significantly raised cancer risk up to 30 years later. Further investigations attributed eight percent of asbestos workers' deaths to pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma. The author called that paper a turning point in knowledge of asbestos-related disease.

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 commentary (narrative history) introducing a 'classic' paper by Selikoff, Churg and Hammond. It is not an original study and not a systematic review.
• Who was studied: This article studied no population of its own. It describes an earlier study of 632 men from two locals of the asbestos insulator workers union, followed from 1943 through 1962, with 8,737 man-years at risk and 255 deaths. Hammond suggested confining that analysis to workers with at least 20 years' work experience.
• Exposure: Asbestos in general. The study described involved asbestos insulation workers exposed to asbestos fibers. No fiber types are named.
• Main results:
  • The article reports US asbestos production of about 6,000 tons in 1900 and 650,000 tons in 1975, falling to about 300,000 tons by 1982.
  • The article recounts a report that Pliny the Younger commented on the sickness of slaves who worked with asbestos.
  • The article recounts that references to occupational disease associated with mining appeared in the 16th century, and that the first reference to pulmonary fibrosis in an asbestos worker appeared in England in 1906.
  • Hammond suggested confining the analysis of the insulator study to workers with at least 20 years' work experience, who would have had the greatest asbestos exposure.
  • The article reports that the earlier Selikoff, Churg and Hammond study of 632 insulators found three cases of mesothelioma.
  • The article reports that the same team's later investigations found pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma caused eight percent of all deaths among asbestos workers.
  • The article reports that a 1968 paper by the team described a synergistic effect of cigarette smoking with asbestos exposure.
  • The article reports that a later analysis by the team found that even short-term asbestos exposure was followed by a significant increase in cancer risk up to 30 years later.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the Selikoff, Churg and Hammond paper on 632 insulators was a turning point in knowledge of asbestos-related disease and in the direction of later research.

Topics

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

Related studies

• Historical perspective on asbestos: policies and protective measures in World War II shipbuilding — J.K. Corn, J. Starr (1987)
• Historical developments and perspectives in inorganic fiber toxicity in man — I.J. Selikoff (1990)
• Historical perspectives of occupational cancer — P. Bogovski (1980)
• Pathological recognition of diffuse malignant mesothelioma of the pleura: the significance of the historical perspective as regards this signal tumor — E.J. Mark, R.L. Kradin (2006)
• An update on pleuro-pulmonary cytopathology: Part i: Cytological diagnosis of mesothelioma and molecular cytology of lung cancer with an historical perspective — C.W. Bedrossian (2015)
• Diseases related to asbestos exposure: historical perspective — H.P. Pendergrass, J.D. Snell, et al. (1987)

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