Cancer mortality in a northern Italian cohort of rubber workers

Our plain-English summary of Cancer mortality in a northern Italian cohort of rubber workers, by A. Fischbein (British Journal of Industrial Medicine, 1990).

The study

• Author: A. Fischbein
• Journal: British Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Published: 1990;47(1):71-2
• Type of article: Comment, Letter
• Cited by: 3 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 000016).

In plain English

This is a letter to the editor, not a research study. It responded to a mortality study of rubber tyre workers by Negri and colleagues that reported excess deaths from "cancer of the pleura", which appeared to be limited to those employed before the 1940s. The author reported seeing chest X-ray signs consistent with asbestos exposure in long-term tyre plant workers, without giving counts. The letter described one case: a male electrician who began work in a tyre manufacturing plant in 1951 and worked there for 26 years, with no earlier asbestos-related work. He reported direct and indirect exposure to soapstone and asbestos-containing insulation materials at the plant. A 1986 chest X-ray showed extensive pleural abnormalities, including pleural thickening on both sides and calcifications on the diaphragm. The author described these as characteristic of asbestos-induced effects. The author concluded that these observations lend support to the idea that asbestos exposure may be the cause of the pleural cancer findings of Negri and colleagues. The author suggested surveillance of long-term tyre plant workers for asbestos-related disorders. One case cannot show how common such findings are.

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 (correspondence) commenting on another study and describing a single case
• Who was studied: One male worker employed as an electrician in a tyre manufacturing plant from 1951 for 26 years, with no prior employment in an asbestos-related trade. The plant's location is not stated.
• Exposure: Self-reported indirect and direct exposure to soapstone and asbestos-containing insulation materials during work in the tyre plant. No fiber type is named for this case.
• Main results:
  • In the one case described, a chest radiograph taken in 1986 (35 years after he started work) showed extensive pleural abnormalities: bilateral thickening of the lateral costal pleura, pleural thickening seen face on, and diaphragmatic calcifications. The author described these as characteristic of asbestos-induced effects.
  • The author reported having noticed radiographic signs consistent with exposure to asbestos-containing materials and other inorganic dusts among workers with long-term employment in tyre manufacturing plants. No numbers of workers were given.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that these radiographic observations lend support to the notion that asbestos exposure may be the cause of the pleural cancer findings of Negri et al. The author suggested that long-term tyre plant workers receive medical surveillance aimed at early detection of asbestos-related disorders.

Related studies

• Exposure to nitrosamines, carbon black, asbestos, and talc and mortality from stomach, lung, and laryngeal cancer in a cohort of rubber workers — K. Straif, U. Keil, et al. (2000)
• Occupational risk factors for mortality from stomach and lung cancer among rubber workers: an analysis using internal controls and refined exposure assessment — K. Straif, L. Chambless, et al. (1999)
• Cohort study of workers employed in an Italian tire manufacturing plant, 1962-2004 — D. Mirabelli, A.M. Cacciatore, et al. (2012)
• Workplace risk factors for cancer in the German rubber industry: Part 1. Mortality from respiratory cancers — S.K. Weiland, K. Straif, et al. (1998)
• Talco-silicosis in a rubber worker — W.G. Graham, E.A. Gaensler (1965)
• Mortality of Talc Miners and Millers From Val Chisone, Northern Italy: An Updated Cohort Study — E. Pira, M. Coggiola, et al. (2017)

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