Asbestos related abnormalities among United States merchant marine seamen

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos related abnormalities among United States merchant marine seamen, by P.J. Barrett (British Journal of Industrial Medicine, 1990).

The study

• Author: P.J. Barrett
• Journal: British Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Published: 1990;47(12):844-5
• Type of article: Letter, Comment
• Cited by: 2 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 001603).

In plain English

This item is a letter to the editor, not a research study. The author commented on an earlier paper by Selikoff and colleagues on chest x rays of United States merchant marine seamen. The author asked for a breakdown of the seamen by the ILO x ray classification for lung (parenchymal) changes, a listing of pleural abnormalities, and example x rays in the 1/0 to 1/1 range. The author noted that even experienced "B" readers find the 0/1, 1/0 and 1/1 categories hard to agree on, more so when pleural plaques seen face on (en face) are present at the lung bases. The author said they were trying high resolution CT for such patients. The original authors' reply, printed with the letter, gave the breakdown for 3324 seamen: 2258 scored 0/0, 510 (15.3%) 0/1, 309 (9.3%) 1/0, 190 (5.7%) 1/1, 27 scored 1/2, and 30 (0.9%) 2/1 or higher. Higher scores were more common when pleural fibrosis was seen face on, especially diffuse pleural fibrosis. The reply is cut off in this text.

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: Letter to the editor (correspondence) commenting on a published study by Selikoff and colleagues, followed by the original authors' reply
• Who was studied: The letter discusses the series of United States merchant marine seamen in the Selikoff et al. paper. The authors' reply gives figures for 3324 merchant marine seamen.
• Exposure: Asbestos exposure among merchant marine seamen. No fiber types, products or doses are named in this text.
• Main results:
  • The letter's author observed, as others have reported, that even experienced "B" readers find the 0/1, 1/0 and 1/1 profusion categories for small opacities difficult to agree on. This is more of a problem when en face basal pleural plaques are present.
  • In the original authors' reply: parenchymal abnormalities consistent with asbestos exposure were present in less than 17% of the whole group of seamen. In 9.9% of the group these were the only radiological abnormalities.
  • In the original authors' reply (Table 1), the ILO profusion scores for parenchymal small opacities among 3324 seamen were:
• 0/0: 2258 (percentage printed as "67 9", decimal point lost in scanning)
• 0/1: 510 (15.3%)
• 1/0: 309 (9.3%)
• 1/1: 190 (5.7%)
• 1/2: 27 (percentage printed as "0 8", decimal point lost in scanning)
• 2/1 and higher: 30 (0.9%)
  • In the original authors' reply: the proportions of seamen with profusion category 1 and category 2 were higher when pleural fibrosis was seen face on, especially diffuse pleural fibrosis. The table with these figures (table 2) is not in this text.
  • The original authors offered two possible interpretations. First, face-on pleural fibrosis may make a positive parenchymal score more likely. Second, there may be a genuine association between parenchymal and pleural changes. The second explanation is cut off mid-sentence in this text.
• The authors' conclusion: The letter's author argued that at least one or two example x rays in the 1/0 to 1/1 range would have helped readers form a definite opinion of the study's results.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The original study's authors agreed that small opacities in the lung are difficult to interpret when pleural fibrosis seen face on is present.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Pleural plaques and thickening, Shipyards and maritime work.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Merchant Marine.

Related studies

• Asbestotic radiological abnormalities among United States merchant marine seamen — I.J. Selikoff, R. Lilis, et al. (1990)
• Historical state of knowledge of the health risks of asbestos posed to seamen on merchant ships — D.G. Dodge, B.D. Beck (2016)
• Cancer mortality in merchant seamen — M. Greenberg (1991)
• Asbestos-related disease in Bangladeshi ship breakers: a pilot study — M.N. Courtice, P.A. Demers, et al. (2011)
• Asbestos-associated disease in United States shipyards — I.J. Selikoff, E.C. Hammond (1978)
• Asbestos disease in United States shipyards — I.J. Selikoff, R. Lilis, et al. (1979)

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