Asbestos--the legacy lives on

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos--the legacy lives on, by D. Bonn (Lancet, 1999).

The study

• Author: D. Bonn
• Journal: Lancet
• Published: 1999;353(9161):1336
• Type of article: News
• Cited by: 3 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This one-page item in The Lancet was a news feature, not a research study, and reported no new data of its own. It described the legacy of South Africa's crocidolite (blue asbestos) mining industry. It reported asbestosis in 12-year-old children and, in one region, mesothelioma incidence 180 times the national background. More than 2000 South Africans with asbestos-related disease, both mine workers and people living near mines, were pursuing claims in the English High Court against Cape plc. The article described the claims against the company as allegations. Under South Africa's statutory no-fault scheme, a person with asbestosis was likely to receive at most R400–500. The feature also covered a disagreement among researchers about chrysotile (white asbestos). Corbett McDonald was quoted as finding, in a cohort of 11 000 Quebec chrysotile miners and millers, little evidence of a lung cancer or mesothelioma risk except at very high exposure. Julian Peto questioned how that study measured exposure. The feature quoted the WHO International Programme on Chemical Safety as concluding that chrysotile exposure increases risks of asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma in a dose-dependent manner.

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 feature (journalism based on interviews and reported statements); not original research
• Who was studied: South Africans affected by crocidolite mining, including more than 2000 mine workers and people living near mines who were pursuing legal claims; no study population of its own
• Exposure: crocidolite (blue asbestos) from South African mining and milling; the article also discusses chrysotile (white asbestos) and amosite
• Main results:
  • Reported (no source study named): asbestosis in 12-year-old children, and mesothelioma incidence in one region 180 times the national background incidence
  • The article presented the claims about Cape Asbestos's conduct as allegations
  • In South Africa, a person with asbestosis was likely to receive at most R400–500 (UK£40–50) under a statutory no-fault compensation scheme
  • At the peak in the 1970s there were more than 40 crocidolite mines in South Africa
  • Crocidolite mining in South Africa ceased in 1995
  • Attributed to Corbett McDonald: in a cohort study of 11 000 chrysotile miners and millers in Quebec, Canada, he found little evidence of a lung cancer or mesothelioma risk except at very high exposure levels
  • Reported in the context of Julian Peto's argument: asbestos-textile workers in Charleston (SC, USA), where Quebec chrysotile was used, had a low mesothelioma risk but a much higher excess lung cancer risk than mining and milling workers
  • Attributed to WHO's International Programme on Chemical Safety: chrysotile exposure poses increased risks of asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma in a dose-dependent manner
• The authors' conclusion: As a news feature, the article draws no research conclusion of its own. It ends by noting that most western European countries had banned most uses of all types of asbestos.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Asbestosis, Chrysotile, Crocidolite, Lung cancer, Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• The Wittenoom legacy — A.W.B. Musk, A. Reid, et al. (2020)
• Risk of mesothelioma from exposure to crocidolite asbestos: a 1995 update of a South African mortality study — D. Kielkowski, G. Nelson, et al. (2000)
• Asbestos's sorrowful legacy: a photoessay — H. Du Plessis (2003)
• South Africa's export trade in asbestos: demise of an industry — J.S. Harington, N.D. McGlashan, et al. (2010)
• Cancer incidence among women and girls environmentally and occupationally exposed to blue asbestos at Wittenoom, Western Australia — A. Reid, J. Heyworth, et al. (2008)
• Exposures estimates of the Wittenoom mining workforce and town residents - Implications associated with risk estimation for persons exposed to asbestiform riebeckite — A.J. Rogers (2018)

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