Carcinogenesis and mineral fibres

Our plain-English summary of Carcinogenesis and mineral fibres, by J.C. Wagner, G. Berry, F.D. Pooley (British Medical Bulletin, 1980).

The study

• Authors: J.C. Wagner, G. Berry, F.D. Pooley
• Journal: British Medical Bulletin
• Published: 1980;36(1):53-6
• Type of article: Review
• Cited by: 31 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. 002062).

Summary of the article

This review updated the authors' 1971 account of the epidemiology of asbestos cancers and extended it to man-made and naturally occurring mineral fibres. It described the six asbestos minerals (five amphiboles and chrysotile), their uses, and the composition, manufacture and fibre sizes of slag, rock and glass wools and filaments. Drawing on published studies, the authors stated that all three commercial asbestos types increased lung cancer deaths in a dose-related way. They stated that amphibole exposure was much more likely than chrysotile to cause mesothelioma, and that mesothelioma risk was dose dependent. Smoking and asbestos appeared to act multiplicatively. Compared with men who neither smoked nor worked with asbestos, lung cancer death rates were 5 times higher in non-smoking asbestos workers, 11 times higher in smokers, and 53 times higher in smoking asbestos workers. In rats, all main asbestos types and fine, long glass fibres produced mesotheliomas. After inhalation, Canadian chrysotile produced as many mesotheliomas as crocidolite. Two studies of glass fibre insulation workers (416 and 1448 men) recorded 20 versus 23 expected and 54 versus 64 expected cancer deaths. In Karain, a Turkish village of under 700 people, 35 pleural mesothelioma deaths occurred in 1970-76, and fine erionite fibres were found in local rock. The authors concluded that the risk from glass fibre appeared less than from asbestos, so substitution was in workers' interest only if manufacturers avoided small-diameter fibres.

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 article was a review of published evidence on cancer and mineral fibres: asbestos, man-made mineral fibres (slag, rock and glass wools and filaments) and naturally occurring fibres. It reported no new study of its own. Citing a 1977 International Agency for Research on Cancer review, the authors stated that chrysotile, crocidolite and amosite all increase lung cancer deaths, in a dose-related way. A cited study of Quebec chrysotile miners found that only seven mesotheliomas out of over 4500 deaths could be definitely attributed to chrysotile. From this the authors concluded that amphibole exposure is much more likely than chrysotile to result in mesothelioma. A cited 1979 study found lung cancer death rates five times higher in non-smoking asbestos workers, and 53 times higher in smoking asbestos workers, than in men who did neither. Two cited studies of glass fibre insulation workers recorded fewer cancer deaths than expected. In Karain, a Turkish village of under 700 people, 35 pleural mesothelioma deaths occurred in 1970-76, and local rock contained fine erionite fibres. The authors concluded that glass fibre risk appears lower than asbestos risk, but that substituting it benefits health only if small-diameter fibres are avoided.

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: Review of published epidemiological and animal research on asbestos, man-made mineral fibres and naturally occurring fibres, updating the authors' 1971 review of asbestos cancers
• Who was studied: No population of its own; the review drew on previously published studies of asbestos miners, factory and insulation workers, glass fibre insulation workers, rats in laboratory experiments, and villagers in Turkey
• Exposure: Asbestos (crocidolite, amosite, anthophyllite, tremolite, actinolite, chrysotile); man-made mineral fibres (slag wools, rock wools, glass wools and filaments); naturally occurring fibres such as sepiolite and zeolites including erionite
• Main results:
  • The review stated it is established that all three commercial asbestos types (chrysotile, crocidolite, amosite) increase lung cancer deaths and that the increase is dose related
  • In the cited study of Quebec chrysotile miners (McDonald, 1978), only seven mesotheliomas out of over 4500 deaths could be definitely attributed to chrysotile
  • Based on the scarcity of mesotheliomas among the Quebec chrysotile miners, the authors concluded that amphibole exposure is much more likely to result in mesothelioma than chrysotile exposure
  • In the cited study by Selikoff & Hammond (1979), compared with men who neither worked with asbestos nor smoked, the lung cancer death rate was five times higher for non-smoking asbestos workers, 11 times higher for smokers not exposed to asbestos, and 53 times higher for asbestos workers who smoked
  • In the authors' earlier rat inhalation experiments (Wagner et al. 1974), the Canadian chrysotile sample produced as many mesotheliomas as crocidolite, although after intrapleural injection crocidolite had produced more
  • In the cited rat experiments with 17 glass fibre samples (Stanton et al. 1977), those researchers suggested the most carcinogenic fibres were less than 1.5 micrometres in diameter and greater than 8 micrometres in length
  • In the cited study of 416 retired fibrous glass insulation workers (Enterline & Henderson, 1975), 20 died of cancer against 23 expected
  • In the cited study of 1448 men at a fibrous glass insulation plant (Bayliss et al. 1976), 54 deaths were due to cancer against 64 expected, and 16 were due to lung cancer against 20 expected
  • In the authors' reading of the evidence, the risk from occupational glass fibre exposure appeared less than the risk from asbestos
  • In Karain, Turkey (Baris et al. 1978), 35 deaths from pleural mesothelioma occurred in 1970-76 in a village averaging under 700 people, over 40% of deaths
  • An International Agency for Research on Cancer analysis found fine erionite fibres (a zeolite) in rock samples from the two Turkish villages with mesotheliomas, but not in samples from other areas
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that, because glass fibre risk appears lower than asbestos risk, using glass fibre and mineral wools as asbestos substitutes is in the interest of health, but only if manufacturers avoid producing small-diameter fibres

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Carcinogenesis, Epidemiology, Asbestos, Amphibole Group, Chrysotile, Lung Cancer, Mesothelioma, Crocidolite.

Related studies

• Role of manmade mineral fibres in the causation of cancer — P.E. Enterline (1990)
• Health aspects of man-made mineral fibres. A review — J.W. Hill (1977)
• The ability of mineral dusts and fibres to initiate lipid peroxidation. Part I: parameters which determine this ability — M. Gulumian (1999)
• Mineral fibres and mesothelioma — J.C. Wagner, F.D. Pooley (1986)
• Morphological transformation of Syrian hamster embryo cells induced by mineral fibres and the alleged enhancement of benzo[a]pyrene — S.O. Mikalsen, E. Rivedal, et al. (1988)
• Solubility of asbestos and man-made mineral fibers in vitro and in vivo: its significance in lung disease — A. Morgan, A. Holmes (1986)

Browse return to medical research.