Asbestosis in the Republic of Croatia

Our plain-English summary of Asbestosis in the Republic of Croatia, by I. Trosić, S. Milković-Kraus (International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 2004).

The study

• Authors: I. Trosić, S. Milković-Kraus
• Journal: International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health
• Published: 2004;10(2):198-201
• Type of article: Review
• Cited by: 2 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Croatians have been exposed to asbestos in the shipbuilding and asbestos-cement industries since 1945. The first cases of asbestosis were reported in 1961; 317 cases were recorded from 1990 to 2000. The Croatian Cancer Registry recorded 248 malignant pleural mesotheliomas between 1991 and 1997, two thirds of which were attributable to occupational exposures to asbestos. The Croatian Asbestosis Patient Association was founded in 1998 to help victims. Croatian law defines the employer's responsibility for work-related health damage and compensation, but average legal proceedings for asbestosis claims take about seven years. Croatian law does not ban the manufacture and import of asbestos. Croatia as a transitional country is subject to socioeconomic pressures. Future approaches to the asbestos issue will depend on revised regulations, which are expected to conform to recommendations of the European Union by 2005.

In plain English

This article was a descriptive country report, not an original study. The authors reviewed asbestos use, asbestos-related disease, compensation and regulation in Croatia. They described shipbuilding as the biggest consumer of asbestos and reported that Croatian law did not ban the import and use of asbestos, with about 4,000 metric tons imported per year from 1995 to 2001. The authors cited national records. The Croatian Institute of Public Health recorded 317 cases of asbestos-related occupational disease from 1990 to 2000. The Croatian Cancer Registry recorded 248 malignant pleural mesotheliomas between 1991 and 1997. For these mesotheliomas, the trend was increasing and tumors were four times higher in men than in women. More than 60% came from the coastal area, and more than two thirds of people with these tumors had verified occupational asbestos exposure. Legal settlement of claims took about five years in municipal courts plus two years in higher courts. The authors concluded that future approaches would depend on revised regulations expected to conform to European Union recommendations by 2005.

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: Descriptive country report (overview) of asbestos use, asbestos-related disease, compensation and regulation in Croatia; no original study data
• Who was studied: People in Croatia exposed to asbestos, mainly in shipbuilding, asbestos-cement and asbestos-processing industries; disease counts drawn from national records (1990 to 2000 and 1991 to 1997)
• Exposure: Occupational asbestos exposure in seven shipyards, an asbestos-cement plant in Vranjic-Split and an asbestos factory in Ploce. Current Croatian workplace limits: 0.1 fiber/cm3 for tremolite, 0.2 fiber/cm3 for crocidolite and anthophyllite, 0.5 fiber/cm3 for amosite, and 2 fiber/cm3 for actinolite and chrysotile
• Main results:
  • Croatian law did not ban the import and use of asbestos
  • About 4,000 metric tons of asbestos per year were imported for industrial use from 1995 to 2001
  • The Croatian Institute of Public Health recorded 317 cases of asbestos-related occupational disease from 1990 to 2000; most were not diagnosed with pulmonary function impairment
  • The Croatian Cancer Registry recorded 248 malignant pleural mesotheliomas between 1991 and 1997, with a clearly increasing trend
  • Pleural mesothelioma tumors were four times higher in men than in women, and more than 60% of recorded cases were from the coastal area
  • More than two thirds of people with these tumors were verified as having had occupational asbestos exposure
  • Some 200 cases of lung and/or pleural asbestosis had been recognized by the social security and pension systems or by court arbitration
  • Legal settlement of claims took about five years in municipal courts plus two years in higher courts
  • No registry of occupational diseases had been established in Croatia
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that future approaches to the asbestos issue in Croatia would depend on revised regulations, expected to conform to European Union recommendations by 2005

Topics

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

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Asbestos-Cement, Cancer Registry, Pleural Mesothelioma, Occupational Exposure.

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