Comment on Małgorzata Krówczyńska and Ewa Wilk. Environmental and Occupational Exposure to Asbestos as a Result of Consumption and Use in Poland. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 2611

Our plain-English summary of Comment on Małgorzata Krówczyńska and Ewa Wilk. Environmental and Occupational Exposure to Asbestos as a Result of Consumption and Use in Poland. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 2611, by B. Świątkowska, W. Hanke (International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2020).

The study

• Authors: B. Świątkowska, W. Hanke
• Journal: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Published: 2020;17(5)
• Type of article: Comment
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

Krówczyńska M [...].

In plain English

This is a short published comment, not a new study. Two researchers from the Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine in Łódź, Poland, responded to a 2019 article by Krówczyńska and Wilk on asbestos exposure in Poland. They wrote that it was not clear how that article decided that mesothelioma cases were caused by environmental exposure. They noted that the cause of cancer (environmental, occupational or para-occupational) is not available from the National Cancer Register, the article's stated data source. They stated that occupational exposure data are the only available, reliable source on the origin of mesothelioma. They cited the Central Register of Occupational Diseases: 2726 asbestos-related diseases from 2001 to 2014, including 289 pleural or peritoneal mesothelioma patients. They also wrote that the original article's figures for the Amiantus Programme, which offers check-ups to former asbestos-processing plant workers, did not provide true information. According to the programme coordinator, since a launch the comment dates to 2013 (it also says workers have been entitled to check-ups since 2000), the programme covered 7374 people (not 7020) and diagnosed 58 mesothelioma cases (not 138).

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: Published comment (letter) on another journal article; no new study was carried out
• Who was studied: The subject is the 2019 article by Krówczyńska and Wilk on asbestos exposure in Poland. The commenting authors also cite Polish occupational disease register data and data on former workers of 28 Polish asbestos-processing plants in the Amiantus Programme.
• Exposure: Asbestos exposure, comparing environmental and para-occupational exposure (as attributed in the original article) with occupational exposure among former asbestos workers
• Main results:
  • The commenting authors stated that the original article did not make clear how environmental exposure histories were collected or how mesothelioma cases were judged to result from environmental exposure.
  • The commenting authors stated that the cause of cancer (environmental, occupational, para-occupational) is not available from the National Cancer Register, which was the original article's data source.
  • According to the commenting authors, Polish occupational disease records from 2001 to 2014 included 2726 asbestos-related diseases, of which 289 were pleural or peritoneal mesothelioma patients. These figures are cited from earlier publications.
  • According to the Amiantus Programme coordinator, since what the comment calls the programme's launch in 2013, the programme covered 7374 people, not 7020 as the original article reported. It performed 29,333 medical examinations and diagnosed 58 cases of mesothelioma, not 138 as the original article reported. Elsewhere the comment says former workers have been entitled to check-ups under the programme since 2000.
  • The commenting authors cited an earlier publication reporting 68 cases of pleural mesothelioma diagnosed up to 2015 among former workers of asbestos processing plants in Poland.
  • The commenting authors stated that the original authors did not request data from the Central Register of Occupational Diseases, and that detailed county-level data are not available online.
• The authors' conclusion: The commenting authors stated that the Amiantus Programme data in the original article did not provide true information. They also stated that occupational exposure data are the only available, reliable source on the origin of mesothelioma.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Occupational Exposure.

Related studies

• Reply to Comment on Małgorzata Krówczyńska and Ewa Wilk. Environmental and Occupational Exposure to Asbestos as a Result of Consumption and Use in Poland. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 2611 — M. Krówczyńska, E. Wilk (2020)
• Is Mesothelioma Unrelated to the Lung Asbestos Burden? Comment on Visonà et al. Inorganic Fiber Lung Burden in Subjects with Occupational and/or Anthropogenic Environmental Asbestos Exposure in Broni (Pavia, Northern Italy): An SEM-EDS Study on Autoptic Samples. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 2053 — D. Mirabelli, A. Angelini, et al. (2021)
• Reply to Mirabelli et al. Is Mesothelioma Unrelated to the Lung Asbestos Burden? Comment on "Visonà et al. Inorganic Fiber Lung Burden in Subjects with Occupational and/or Anthropogenic Environmental Asbestos Exposure in Broni (Pavia, Northern Italy): An SEM-EDS Study on Autoptic Samples. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 2053" — S.D. Visonà, S. Capella, et al. (2021)
• Environmental and Occupational Exposure to Asbestos as a Result of Consumption and Use in Poland — M. Krówczyńska, E. Wilk (2019)
• Correction: Saito et al. Sex-Specific Mortality from Asbestos-Related Diseases, Lung and Ovarian Cancer in Municipalities with High Asbestos Consumption, Brazil, 2000-2017. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 3656 — C.A. Saito, M.A. Bussacos, et al. (2022)
• Asbestos in Poland: occupational health problems — N. Szeszenia-Dąbrowska, B. Swiątkowska, et al. (2011)

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