Battling over asbestos in the third world

Our plain-English summary of Battling over asbestos in the third world (Environmental Health Perspectives, 1997).

The study

• Journal: Environmental Health Perspectives
• Published: 1997;105(11):1178-80
• Type of article: News
• Cited by: 4 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Summary of the article

This news feature described the debate over asbestos use in developing countries, where demand had grown as many developed countries phased it out. It summarized a report by Fernanda Giannasi and Annie Thebaud-Mony, published in the April-June 1997 issue of the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, that described a "silent epidemic" of asbestos-related disease among workers in Brazil. At an Eternit asbestos cement plant in Osasco that closed in the early 1990s, four of the first 12 workers seen at one clinic had asbestosis, seven had pleural plaques, and one died of peritoneal cancer four months later. In an unpublished follow-up, Giannasi reported that 57.5% of 421 former workers examined had diseases that could be related to asbestos dust. The authors concluded that asbestos could not be used safely and that a ban was needed, especially in developing countries. Scott Houston of the industry-supported Asbestos Institute argued that chrysotile, which he said made up 90% of asbestos used worldwide, posed no public health risk with basic exposure controls, and that substitutes might be more dangerous. Joseph LaDou and Barry Castleman disputed this. Castleman said alternative materials existed. Both said industry groups had influenced the WHO and ILO through consultants presented as independent experts. Houston denied any misrepresentation.

PubMed has no abstract for this study, and the article doesn't print one. We wrote this summary from the full article with the help of AI. It is not the authors' wording.

In plain English

This was an unsigned news feature in the Forum section of Environmental Health Perspectives, not a research study. It described a debate over growing asbestos use in developing countries such as China, Brazil and Zimbabwe. It summarized a report by Fernanda Giannasi and Annie Thebaud-Mony, published in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, on former workers at an Eternit asbestos cement plant in Osasco, Brazil. According to that report, the company medical director had said asbestos-related diseases were rarely seen during the plant's 50 years of operation. After the plant closed, 12 workers were the first seen at one clinic. Four had asbestosis, seven had pleural plaques, and one died four months later with peritoneal cancer. In an unpublished follow-up, Giannasi reported that 57.5% of 421 former workers examined had diseases that could be related to inhaling asbestos dust. The report's authors concluded that asbestos should be banned. The feature also quoted Scott Houston of the industry-supported Asbestos Institute, who said chrysotile does not present a public health risk. It also quoted critics who disputed that view.

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 (Forum section) reporting on another group's published report and on a policy debate; not an original study
• Who was studied: Former workers of the Eternit asbestos cement plant in Osasco, Brazil, as described in the Giannasi and Thebaud-Mony report: the first 12 workers seen at one clinic, and 421 former workers eventually examined
• Exposure: Work at an asbestos cement plant. The feature does not state the fiber type used at Osasco. The wider debate concerns chrysotile, which industry says is 90% of asbestos used worldwide, and amphibole asbestos.
• Main results:
  • According to the report, the company medical director at Osasco had said asbestos-related diseases were rarely seen among workers during the plant's 50 years of operation
  • Of the first 12 former workers seen at one clinic, four were diagnosed with asbestosis, seven had pleural plaques, and one died four months later with peritoneal cancer
  • In an unpublished follow-up, Giannasi reported that 57.5% of the 421 former workers examined had diseases that could be related to inhaling asbestos dust. Listed conditions included asbestosis, asthma, peritoneal plaques (as printed), lung cancer, and reduced respiratory capacity.
  • Scott Houston, director general of the industry-supported Asbestos Institute, said chrysotile does not present a public health risk. Houston added that there is no excess occupational risk if exposure is controlled with basic ventilation.
• The authors' conclusion: The feature drew no conclusion of its own. Giannasi and Thebaud-Mony concluded that the only way to end asbestos-related disease is to ban asbestos, and that a ban is even more necessary in developing countries.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Eternit, Asbestos-Cement, Pleural Plaques, Chrysotile.

Related studies

• The asbestos war — L. Kazan-Allen (2003)
• Asbestos and health in the Third World: the case of Brazil — D.M. Berman (1986)
• The third wave of asbestos disease: exposure to asbestos in place. Public health control. Introduction — P.J. Landrigan (1991)
• A ban on asbestos must be based on a comparative risk assessment — M. Camus (2001)
• Asbestos: old foe in 21st century developing countries — L.V. Harris, I.A. Kahwa (2003)
• Scientific controversy and asbestos: making disease invisible — L. Braun, A. Greene, et al. (2003)

Browse more research in Environmental Health Perspectives, or return to medical research.