Clarification on mesothelioma rates in Ontario

Our plain-English summary of Clarification on mesothelioma rates in Ontario, by J. Payne, E. Pichora (International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 2008).

The study

• Authors: J. Payne, E. Pichora
• Journal: International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health
• Published: 2008;14(2):157-8
• Type of article: Comment, Letter
• Cited by: 2 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This was a letter to the editor, not a new study. The authors, from Dalhousie University and Cancer Care Ontario, responded to a 2007 paper, "Canada's Asbestos Legacy at Home and Abroad," which had reproduced their preliminary findings. Their project linked Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) claim records, person by person, to the Ontario Cancer Registry. Among pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma cases diagnosed in Ontario between 1980 and 2002, about 38% had filed a workers' compensation claim. Of those who filed, 87% received compensation. The authors stated that these results were preliminary. They corrected the earlier paper. Its figure of 1437 cases covered both men and women, not men only. It also left out more than 350 mesothelioma cases at other body sites. The registry held 1824 mesothelioma cases in total for that period. The authors noted that claims can be rejected for reasons such as exposure in a workplace not insured by the WSIB, exposure outside Ontario, or environmental or indirect exposure. This made the share of eligible cases hard to measure. The authors agreed that mesothelioma is largely under-reported and under-compensated in Ontario. They reported that the key barrier was at filing rather than adjudication.

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 reporting and clarifying preliminary results of a record-linkage project
• Who was studied: pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma cases in the Ontario Cancer Registry diagnosed in Ontario between 1980 and 2002, linked person by person to WSIB administrative claim data
• Main results:
  • Among pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma cases diagnosed in Ontario between 1980 and 2002, the overall workers' compensation filing rate was approximately 38% (preliminary)
  • Of the 38% of Ontario mesothelioma cases that filed a claim, 87% received compensation from the WSIB
  • The 2007 paper incorrectly stated that 1437 male mesothelioma cases were diagnosed; the figure included both males and females
  • The figure was limited to pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma and excluded more than 350 cases at other body sites; the Ontario Cancer Registry held 1824 mesothelioma cases in total for 1980-2002
  • Total of 1824 mesothelioma cases in the Ontario Cancer Registry for 1980-2002
  • Reasons a mesothelioma claim might be rejected include exposure in a non-WSIB-insured workplace, exposure outside Ontario, and environmental or indirect occupational exposure
  • The authors' research found that the key barrier to compensation was at filing rather than adjudication
• The authors' conclusion: The authors agreed that mesothelioma is largely under-reported and subsequently under-compensated in Ontario
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The results were preliminary, and additional data needed to complete the analysis had only recently been received
  • It is difficult to quantify the proportion of Ontario mesothelioma cases eligible for WSIB compensation, and therefore the degree of under-reporting

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Mesothelioma.

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

Related studies

• Filing for workers' compensation among Ontario cases of mesothelioma — J.I. Payne, E. Pichora (2009)
• Exploring the usefulness of occupational exposure registries for surveillance: the case of the Ontario Asbestos Workers Registry (1986-2012) — A.J. Koné Pefoyo, L. Genesove, et al. (2014)
• Diffuse malignant mesothelioma of the pleura in Ontario and Quebec: a retrospective study of 332 patients — P. Ruffie, R. Feld, et al. (1989)
• Mortality among employees of an Ontario asbestos-cement factory — M.M. Finkelstein (1984)
• Mortality among long-term employees of an Ontario asbestos-cement factory — M.M. Finkelstein (1983)
• Radiographic asbestosis is not a prerequisite for asbestos-associated lung cancer in Ontario asbestos-cement workers — M.M. Finkelstein (1997)

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