Asbestos poisoning was covered up by doctors, claims health team

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos poisoning was covered up by doctors, claims health team, by G. Mudur (BMJ, 2003).

The study

• Author: G. Mudur
• Journal: BMJ
• Published: 2003;327(7409):248
• Type of article: News
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

In plain English

This item is a short BMJ news report from New Delhi, not a research study, and it contains no study data. It described statements made by a public health team and occupational health specialists at a press conference in India. According to the report, they said that doctors in India were under pressure to label patients with asbestos poisoning as having tuberculosis or bronchitis and to underplay the health impact of asbestos. They also said that many thousands of people in India had lung diseases caused by asbestos exposure, and they repeated their demand for a ban on asbestos. The report stated that India used around 125 000 tonnes of asbestos a year, imported mostly from Canada and Russia, and that nearly all (90%) went into roof sheets for homes for poor people. It said that eight years earlier the Supreme Court had ordered the asbestos industry to keep workers' health records and to compensate people affected. One quoted doctor called medical screening of workers inadequate. Another said that the industry challenged diagnoses of asbestos poisoning and that doctors were pressed to interpret x rays as TB, bronchitis or other chronic conditions. The report did not name fiber types.

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 (journalism) describing statements made at a press conference; not a research study
• Who was studied: No study population. The report concerned doctors, workers and people with asbestos-related lung disease in India, as described by the speakers.
• Exposure: Asbestos (fiber type not named), used in India mainly in roof sheets for homes for poor people; around 125 000 tonnes a year, imported mostly from Canada and Russia
• Main results:
  • Reported claim, not a study finding: a public health team said doctors in India were under pressure to label patients with asbestos poisoning as having tuberculosis or bronchitis and to underplay the health impact of asbestos.
  • Reported figure: nearly all (90%) of the asbestos used in India went into roof sheets for homes for poor people.
  • Reported statement: Dr Tushar Kant Joshi said medical screening of workers was inadequate, despite a Supreme Court order eight years earlier requiring the industry to keep workers' health records.
  • Reported statement: Dr Sudhakar Kamat said doctors' diagnoses of asbestos poisoning were challenged by the industry and that doctors were under pressure to interpret x rays as TB, bronchitis or other chronic conditions.

Related studies

• Alterations in psychosocial health of people affected by asbestos poisoning — M. Clemente, A. Reig-Botella, et al. (2015)
• The doctors and the dockers — M. Greenberg (2004)
• Re: Call for an International Ban on Asbestos: Trust me, I'm a doctor — M. Greenberg (2000)
• Doctor with mesothelioma wins settlement for asbestos exposure in late 1990s — C. Dyer (2020)
• Toxic torts: are they poisoning the scientific literature? — P.E. Enterline (1996)
• Ending asbestos poisoning: global advocacy from a survivor's view — P.S. Zygielbaum (2007)

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