Asbestos, talc and nitrites in relation to gastric cancer

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos, talc and nitrites in relation to gastric cancer, by W.E. Smith (American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal, 1973).

The study

• Author: W.E. Smith
• Journal: American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal
• Published: 1973;34(5):227-8
• Cited by: 16 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 002409).

In plain English

This short report responded to the view that asbestos in talc might contribute to the high rate of stomach (gastric) cancer in Japan. It summarized earlier hamster experiments by the author's group and reported a new one. In the earlier work, hamsters fed diets containing 1% chrysotile or amosite asbestos throughout their lives developed no gastric carcinomas. The scanned text prints their number as "4 5". One tumor in the mesentery of the colon could not be related to the treatment. Also earlier, injecting 25 mg of chrysotile or amosite into the chest lining (intrapleural injection) produced 8 to 10 tumors diagnosed as pleural mesotheliomas in each of 3 groups of 50 hamsters. In the new experiment, hamsters (the scanned text prints the number as "501") were each given an intrapleural injection of 25 mg of an industrial talc. X-ray analysis showed it contained major amounts of tremolite asbestos and talc. The animals were followed for life and had no tumors attributable to the treatment. Small, focal granulomatous lesions on the pleura were common. The author concluded that these negative results did not support the view that asbestos-containing talc contributes to gastric cancer in Japan.

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: Brief report of animal experiments in hamsters: a summary of earlier feeding and intrapleural injection experiments plus a new intrapleural injection experiment with an asbestos-containing talc
• Who was studied: Hamsters given intrapleural injections of the talc sample and followed for their life spans (the scanned text prints the number as "501", possibly a scanning error)
• Exposure: 25 mg intrapleural injection of a commercial industrial-grade talc made up of platy and fibrous particles, containing major amounts of tremolite asbestos and talc and a minor amount of antigorite (a serpentine mineral)
• Main results:
  • New experiment: in hamsters injected with the tremolite-containing talc, no tumors attributable to the treatment were found
  • New experiment: granulomatous lesions were common on pleural surfaces but were small and focal, unlike the larger, more fibrotic lesions caused by chrysotile or amosite
  • Earlier work summarized: hamsters fed lifelong diets with 1% chrysotile or amosite (number printed in the scan as "4 5") had no gastric carcinomas
  • Earlier work summarized: the only gastrointestinal-area tumor in the feeding study, a neoplasm in the mesentery of the colon, could not be related to the treatment
  • Earlier work summarized: after intrapleural injection of 25 mg chrysotile or amosite, 8 to 10 tumors diagnosed as pleural mesotheliomas were found in each of 3 groups of 50 hamsters
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the negative talc injection test and the earlier asbestos feeding test did not support the view that asbestos-containing talc contributes to gastric cancer in Japan

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Stomach cancer, Talc and vermiculite.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Talc, Stomach Cancer.

Related studies

• Talc-treated rice and Japanese stomach cancer — R.R. Merliss (1971)
• Talc-coated rice as a risk factor for stomach cancer — G.N. Stemmermann, L.N. Kolonel (1978)
• Asbestos redirects nitric oxide signaling through rapid catalytic conversion to nitrite — D.D. Thomas, M.G. Espey, et al. (2006)
• Exposure to nitrosamines, carbon black, asbestos, and talc and mortality from stomach, lung, and laryngeal cancer in a cohort of rubber workers — K. Straif, U. Keil, et al. (2000)
• Talc exposure and risk of stomach cancer: Systematic review and meta-analysis of occupational cohort studies — C.J. Chang, Y.K. Tu, et al. (2020)
• Stomach Cancer and Exposure to Talc Powder without Asbestos via Chinese Herbal Medicine: A Population-Based Cohort Study — C.J. Chang, Y.H. Yang, et al. (2019)

Browse more research in American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal, or return to medical research.