Comments on the causation of malignant mesothelioma: rebutting the false concept that recent exposures to asbestos do not contribute to causation of mesothelioma

Our plain-English summary of Comments on the causation of malignant mesothelioma: rebutting the false concept that recent exposures to asbestos do not contribute to causation of mesothelioma, by C. Ramazzini (Journal of Occupational Health, 2016).

The study

• Author: C. Ramazzini
• Journal: Journal of Occupational Health
• Published: 2016;58(2):228-9
• Cited by: 2 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

In plain English

This is a letter to the editor from the Collegium Ramazzini, an international scientific society. It is not a study and reports no new data. It addressed Italian civil and criminal court cases about workers' mesothelioma. The letter described an argument used by the Italian asbestos industry and its expert witnesses: that when asbestos exposure is prolonged, only the earliest periods help cause mesothelioma and later exposures have no causal role. The authors said a 2005 paper by Chiappino misquoted Irving Selikoff's "trigger dose" concept. They called a review by La Vecchia and Boffetta biased and highly selective. They cited a 2011 systematic review by an Italian consensus conference working group, which found mesothelioma incidence proportional to cumulative asbestos exposure. That group judged earlier exposure more effective but set no time limit after which further exposure stopped adding risk. They also cited a 2015 review finding that both intensity and duration of exposure determine risk. The authors concluded that all exposures, early as well as late, contribute to mesothelioma risk.

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 (position statement by a scientific society); no original data
• Who was studied: No study population; the letter concerns mesothelioma cases brought before Italian courts as possible occupational diseases
• Exposure: Asbestos exposure in general (no fiber type named), specifically whether later periods of a prolonged exposure contribute to mesothelioma
• Main results:
  • The authors stated that Chiappino's 2005 paper, often cited by defense expert witnesses for the trigger dose hypothesis, misquoted Irving Selikoff's concept of trigger dose
  • The authors stated that the La Vecchia and Boffetta review rested on a biased and highly selective review of the literature
  • The letter cited a 2011 systematic review by an Italian consensus conference working group as concluding that mesothelioma incidence is proportional to cumulative asbestos exposure
  • According to the letter, the working group judged the timing of exposure important, with earlier increases more effective, but set no time limit beyond which further exposure would not increase mesothelioma risk
  • The letter cited a 2015 review as finding that both intensity and duration of asbestos exposure are determinants of mesothelioma risk
• The authors' conclusion: The Collegium Ramazzini concluded that mesothelioma risk is related to cumulative asbestos exposure, with early and late exposures both contributing. It rejected the claim that only the earliest exposures matter, and said it was concerned this claim could lead to unjust denial of compensation.

Topics

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

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

Related studies

• Re: Comments on the causation of malignant mesothelioma: Rebutting the false concept that recent exposures to asbestos do not contribute to causation of mesothelioma — B. Terracini, D. Mirabelli, et al. (2016)
• Comments on the causation of malignant mesothelioma: Rebutting the false concept that recent exposures to asbestos do not contribute to causation of mesothelioma — B. Terracini, D. Mirabelli, et al. (2016)
• Comments on the causation of malignant mesothelioma: rebutting the false concept that recent exposures to asbestos do not contribute to causation of mesothelioma — (2016)
• Comments on the Causation of Malignant Mesothelioma: Rebutting the False Concept That Recent Exposures to Asbestos Do Not Contribute to Causation of Mesothelioma — P.J. Landrigan, Collegium Ramazzini (2016)
• Re: Terracini et al. Comments on the causation of malignant mesothelioma: Rebutting the false concept that recent exposures to asbestos do not contribute to causation of mesothelioma. Am J Ind Med 2016;59:506-507 — P. Boffetta (2016)
• Comments on a recent case-control study of malignant mesothelioma of the pericardium and the tunica vaginalis testis — G. Mezei, E.T. Chang, et al. (2021)

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