Asbestos: killer dust, says book

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos: killer dust, says book, by A. Hay (Nature, 1979).

The study

• Author: A. Hay
• Journal: Nature
• Published: 1979;281(5728):172
• Type of article: News
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This one-page news report in Nature, written by Alastair Hay, described a book, 'Asbestos Killer Dust' by Dr Alan Dalton, published by the British Society for Social Responsibility in Science. It was not a research study. The book predicted that five hundred thousand people would die from asbestos-related diseases in the UK over the next forty years. The book got this figure by scaling down a 1978 US government (NIEHS) estimate that over 2 million American workers would die of cancer from occupational asbestos exposure. Dalton argued that the UK limits were much too high. These were 0.2 fibres per millilitre for blue (crocidolite) asbestos and 2.0 for white (chrysotile), brown (amosite) and other fibres. He noted that a 1976 NIOSH report recommended 0.1 fibre per millilitre. The article stated that the 1966 Turner and Newall Rochdale study behind the British standard was flawed. The Health and Safety Executive felt Dalton had considerably over-estimated the dangers, but it accepted that mesothelioma deaths were a real problem. Its figures rose from 154 deaths in 1968 to 323 in 1977.

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: News report in Nature about a book (not original research)
• Who was studied: No study population. The article discusses the book's prediction for the UK, which was based on a 1978 US NIEHS report estimating cancer deaths among American workers exposed to asbestos at work.
• Exposure: Occupational asbestos exposure. The article compares workplace fibre limits: the UK recommended 0.2 fibres per millilitre for blue (crocidolite) asbestos and 2.0 fibres per millilitre for white (chrysotile), brown (amosite) and any other fibre.
• Main results:
  • Dalton's book estimated that asbestos would kill some half million people in Britain. It reached this by applying the NIEHS US estimate to a UK population roughly a quarter the size of the US population.
  • Dalton noted that NIOSH recommended a US standard of 0.1 fibre per millilitre. He questioned why the British standard for white asbestos was 20 times higher.
  • Dalton stated that mesothelioma is attributable to exposure to both blue and white asbestos, not only blue as was originally believed.
  • The article stated that the 1966 Turner and Newall (Rochdale) study underlying the British standard was flawed. Only workers with 10 years' service who were still employed were included. The clinical test (crepitations) may have missed minor damage, and dust levels may have been higher than reported.
  • According to the article, the most conservative NIEHS risk estimate implied at least 5000 mesothelioma deaths a year in the US, but the 1976 US figure was 1000 deaths.
  • UK mesothelioma deaths recorded by HSE's Employment Medical Advisory Service were 154 in 1968, 208 in 1972, 230 in 1974 and 323 in 1977.
  • An HSE spokesman said the mesotheliomas may not have been due to asbestos, but that it was almost certain they were.
  • The HSE Advisory Committee on Asbestos was reported likely to recommend three changes: halving the white asbestos standard to 1 fibre per millilitre, setting brown asbestos at 0.5 fibre per millilitre, and banning blue asbestos.
• The authors' conclusion: Dalton concluded that present British standards allowed much too high a concentration and were a positive danger to health. The HSE felt Dalton had considerably over-estimated the dangers.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The article reports HSE criticism that US death figures cannot be applied to the UK.
  • The article reports that HSE scientists doubted the NIEHS report's assumption that the relative risk of cancer is constant throughout life.

Related studies

• Diffuse mesothelioma and exposure to asbestos dust in the Merseyside area — W.G. Owen (1964)
• Cancer mortality and wood dust exposure among participants in the American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Study-II (CPS-II) — S.D. Stellman, P.A. Demers, et al. (1998)
• Comparative Risks of Cancer from Drywall Finishing Based on Stochastic Modeling of Cumulative Exposures to Respirable Dusts and Chrysotile Asbestos Fibers — F.W. Boelter, Y. Xia, et al. (2015)
• Asbestos in organochlorine insecticide powder sprinkled between pages of antiquarian books in a library in Japan — Y. Sakakibara, K. Sakai, et al. (2024)
• Dust exposure and mortality in chrysotile mining, 1910-75 — J.C. McDonald, F.D. Liddell, et al. (1980)
• Asbestos content of dust encountered in brake maintenance and repair — M.L. Newhouse (1977)

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