Chrysotile asbestos: health effects

Our plain-English summary of Chrysotile asbestos: health effects, by J.T. Hack (Science, 1977).

The study

• Author: J.T. Hack
• Journal: Science
• Published: 1977;197(4310):1232-4
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This letter to the editor is not a research study and reports no new data. The author was replying to Rohl, Langer, and Selikoff about their report on asbestos in Maryland. At issue was whether paving roads and trails with serpentine rock from the Hunting Hill quarry near Rockville, Maryland, is a health hazard, given chrysotile in the rock and in traffic dust. The author cited Quebec chrysotile mine studies by McDonald and colleagues covering causes of death for 28,000 workers. As the author summarized them, cancer-related deaths in chrysotile mining and milling were much lower than in asbestos manufacturing. Very high dust levels over many years (for example, 4 million particles or more per cubic foot at the workplace for 50 years) resulted in unacceptable health hazards. The workers' general health was comparable to that of Quebec Province's population. The author stated that the Rockville quarries contain much less chrysotile than the Quebec mines. The author concluded that a hazard from using serpentinite for fill and pavement therefore appeared unlikely. The author also noted the other authors had not cited these studies.

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 replying to Rohl, Langer, and Selikoff); no original data collected
• Who was studied: No people were studied. The letter concerns use of serpentine rock from the Hunting Hill quarry near Rockville, Maryland, for paving roads and trails, and refers to other researchers' data on Quebec chrysotile mine and mill workers.
• Exposure: Chrysotile in quarried serpentine rock (serpentinite) and in airborne dust raised by traffic
• Main results:
  • Not this letter's own data: the author described the Quebec chrysotile mine studies as covering mortality causes for 28,000 workers, with records going back more than 50 years
  • Author's summary of the Quebec studies: cancer-related deaths in chrysotile mining and milling were much lower than, and not comparable with, those in asbestos manufacturing industries
  • Author's summary of the Quebec studies: very high dust levels for many years (for example, 4 million particles or more per cubic foot at the workplace for 50 years) did result in unacceptable health hazards
  • Author's summary of the Quebec studies: the general health of Quebec chrysotile mining and milling employees was comparable to that of the Quebec Province population as a whole
  • The author noted that the reply by Rohl, Langer, and Selikoff did not cite the Quebec studies
• The authors' conclusion: The author stated that the Rockville serpentinite quarries contain much lower concentrations of chrysotile than the Quebec mines, and concluded that a health hazard from using serpentinite for fill and pavement appeared unlikely

Topics

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

Related studies

• Health risk of chrysotile revisited — D. Bernstein, J. Dunnigan, et al. (2013)
• The health of chrysotile asbestos mine and mill workers of Quebec — J.C. McDonald, M.R. Becklake, et al. (1974)
• The health effects of chrysotile: current perspective based upon recent data — D.M. Bernstein, J.A. Hoskins (2006)
• Chrysotile asbestos and health in Zimbabwe: I. Analysis of miners and millers compensated for asbestos-related diseases since independence (1980) — M.R. Cullen, R.S. Baloyi (1991)
• How conflicted authors undermine the World Health Organization (WHO) campaign to stop all use of asbestos: spotlight on studies showing that chrysotile is carcinogenic and facilitates other non-cancer asbestos-related diseases — X. Baur, C.L. Soskolne, et al. (2015)
• Asbestos health hazard: a spectroscopic study of synthetic geoinspired Fe-doped chrysotile — E. Foresti, E. Fornero, et al. (2009)

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