Asbestos related disease investigated

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos related disease investigated (British Dental Journal, 2009).

The study

• Journal: British Dental Journal
• Published: 2009;206(10):512
• Type of article: Comment, News
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This item is not a research study. It is a short, unsigned news piece in the British Dental Journal's News section. It announced a paper published later in the same issue, "An investigation into asbestos related disease in the dental industry" (BDJ 2009; 206: 515-516), by Chris Fry, described as Partner and Head of Industrial Diseases at the solicitors Wake Smith & Tofields. The news item reported no data of its own. It said Mr Fry's paper discussed mesothelioma and its possible origins in dental professionals. Mr Fry was quoted as saying his research showed "a significant risk to a small but probably identifiable proportion" of dentists, technicians and nurses who trained with and used various periodontal powders in the 1960s and 1970s. The item said the paper named products thought capable of causing asbestos related respiratory diseases. The item itself did not name any products or fiber types and gave no case counts or risk figures. Mr Fry added that not all asbestos related diseases are deadly and called the paper an "early warning" notice.

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 item reporting on a separate paper by a solicitor; not a research study
• Who was studied: No population was studied in this item. The paper it describes concerns dentists, technicians and nurses who trained with and used periodontal powders in the 1960s and 1970s
• Exposure: Periodontal powders said to contain asbestos. No products or fiber types are named in this item
• The authors' conclusion: Not a conclusion of this item's authors. Mr Fry was quoted as saying his research showed a significant risk to a small but probably identifiable proportion of dentists, technicians and nurses

Topics

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

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• An investigation into asbestos related disease in the dental industry — C. Fry (2009)
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