Asbestosis in non-experimental animals in South Africa

Our plain-English summary of Asbestosis in non-experimental animals in South Africa, by I. Webster (Nature, 1963).

The study

• Author: I. Webster
• Journal: Nature
• Published: 1963;197:506
• Cited by: 15 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. 001577).

In plain English

This short 1963 letter in Nature, from the Pneumoconiosis Research Unit in Johannesburg, described lung examinations of animals that had lived near asbestos mines or mills in South Africa. The author stated that no earlier record of asbestosis in non-experimental animals had been found. Two donkeys had hauled ore on an amosite asbestos mine in the northern Transvaal. In the one that had worked for ten years, the lungs showed interstitial fibrosis (scarring) with asbestos bodies and asbestos needles. In the second donkey, whose length of service was unknown and whose tissue was poorly preserved, numerous asbestos needles were found. A baboon from a troop living near a crocidolite asbestos mill in the Kuruman area of the Cape Province had focal areas of interstitial fibrosis with asbestos bodies and fibres. Of twenty-three field rats (Rattus namaquensis) trapped around the same mill, eighteen showed definite and three probable asbestosis in sections of the right lung. The author noted that the rat colony's death rate appeared high but was probably not due to asbestosis.

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: Short report (letter) of post-mortem lung examinations of animals that had lived near asbestos mines or mills
• Who was studied: Animals from South Africa that had lived near an asbestos mine or mill: two donkeys from an amosite mine in the northern Transvaal, one baboon from a troop near a crocidolite mill in the Kuruman area of the north-west Cape Province, and twenty-three field rats (Rattus namaquensis) trapped around that mill
• Exposure: Living or working near asbestos operations: amosite asbestos mine (donkeys hauling ore to the picking plant); crocidolite asbestos mill in the Kuruman area (baboon and field rats)
• Main results:
  • Donkey that had worked on the amosite mine for ten years: lungs showed interstitial fibrosis associated with asbestos bodies and asbestos needles
  • Second donkey (length of service unknown): numerous asbestos needles were found in lung sections after micro-incineration
  • Baboon from near the crocidolite mill: lungs felt firmer than a normal laboratory monkey's and showed focal areas of interstitial fibrosis associated with asbestos bodies and fibres
  • Field rats trapped around the crocidolite mill: of 23 rats, definite asbestosis in 18 and probable asbestosis in 3, on examination of right lung sections
  • The rat colony's mortality appeared high, which the author judged was probably not due to asbestosis
• The authors' conclusion: The letter stated no formal conclusion. The author described the finding of asbestosis in the donkeys as of interest.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Only a small piece of the second donkey's lung was available, and its tissue preservation was not good
  • The second donkey's length of service was not known

Topics

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

Related studies

• Risk of asbestosis in crocidolite and amosite mines in South Africa — L.M. Irwig, R.S. du Toit, et al. (1979)
• Mesotheliomatous tumors in South Africa: pathology and experimental pathology — I. Webster (1965)
• Excess mortality from stomach cancer, lung cancer, and asbestosis and/or mesothelioma in crocidolite mining districts in South Africa — J.L. Botha, L.M. Irwig, et al. (1986)
• Asbestosis in South Africa--certain geographical and environmental considerations — G.K. Sluis-Cremer (1965)
• Radiological and pathological correlations in asbestosis in the Republic of South Africa and the United Kingdom. I. A proposed radiological classification of asbestosis — G.K. Sluis-Cremer, C.P. Theron (1965)
• Radiological and pathological correlations in asbestosis in the Republic of South Africa and the United Kingdom. II. A preliminary study of observer variation in the classification of radiographs of asbestos-exposed workers and the relation of pathology and x-ray appearances — A. Caplan, J.C. Gilson, et al. (1965)

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