Can one assess genotoxic and carcinogenic risk of asbestos without mentioning ingested fibres?

Our plain-English summary of Can one assess genotoxic and carcinogenic risk of asbestos without mentioning ingested fibres?, by C. Varga (Mutation Research, 2005).

The study

• Author: C. Varga
• Journal: Mutation Research
• Published: 2005;572(1-2):173-4; author reply 175-6
• Type of article: Letter
• Cited by: 3 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This is a letter to the editor, not a research study, and it reported no new data. The author commented on a 2004 special issue of Mutation Research about how mineral fibres, including asbestos, may damage genes and cause cancer. The author argued that the issue left out asbestos fibres that are swallowed. In the author's view, the whole population is exposed this way, especially through drinking water, and a large part of inhaled fibres is also swallowed. The author also questioned several methods used in the issue: cell types that may not be real targets of asbestos, delivery of fibres into the windpipe or the abdomen instead of real exposure routes, and a rat study in which benzo[a]pyrene was given together with amosite rather than attached to the fibres. The author further noted a mismatch between the small respirable standard fibres used in laboratories and the commercial-size fibres people actually meet. The author concluded that commercial asbestos fibres are mainly not respirable, that swallowing could be considered the main route of exposure, and that risk assessment research should consider this approach.

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: letter to the editor (commentary on published articles; no original data)
• Who was studied: No study population; the letter commented on articles in a 2004 Mutation Research special issue on mineral fibre genotoxicity and carcinogenicity
• Exposure: Ingested (swallowed) asbestos fibres, discussed as missing from the special issue; the letter also discussed delivery into the windpipe and into the abdomen, crocidolite, amosite combined with benzo[a]pyrene, and respirable UICC fibres compared with commercial-size fibres
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that commercial asbestos fibres are mainly not respirable, that inhaled fibres can later be swallowed, that oral exposure can be considered the main route, and that mineral fibre research and risk assessment should consider this approach

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Carcinogenic.

Related studies

• On the mechanism of cogenotoxic action between ingested amphibole asbestos fibres and benzo[a]pyrene: I. Urinary and serum mutagenicity studies with rats — C. Varga, G. Horváth, et al. (1998)
• Genotoxic effects of asbestos in humans — M. Dusinská, A. Collins, et al. (2004)
• The role of genotoxicity in asbestos-induced mesothelioma: an explanation for the differences in carcinogenic potential among fiber types — C.A. Barlow, L. Lievense, et al. (2013)
• In vitro genotoxicity data of nanomaterials compared to carcinogenic potency of inorganic substances after inhalational exposure — M. Roller (2011)
• On the mechanism of cogenotoxic action between ingested amphibole asbestos fibres and benzo[a]pyrene: II. Tissue specificity studies using comet assay — C. Varga, G. Horváth, et al. (1999)
• Asbestos fibres in drinking water: are they carcinogenic or not? — C. Varga (2000)

Browse more research in Mutation Research, or return to medical research.