Effect of tale dust inhalation on lung function

Our plain-English summary of Effect of tale dust inhalation on lung function, by M. Kleinfeld, J. Messite, J. Shapiro, et al (Archives of Environmental Health, 1965).

The study

• Authors: M. Kleinfeld, J. Messite, J. Shapiro, R. Swencicki
• Journal: Archives of Environmental Health
• Published: 1965;10:431-7
• Cited by: 24 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. 002518).

In plain English

This study compared 43 talc mill workers with 41 male controls. The workers had milled talc for over ten years with no earlier dust jobs. The controls had no work dust exposure and lived in the same county. The talc dust was mostly talc mixed with tremolite, anthophyllite, serpentine and less than 5% free silica. Everyone had a medical history, examination, electrocardiogram, chest X-ray and breathing tests. Twenty-nine talc workers reported shortness of breath (28 in the article's table), against two controls. Eight workers had finger clubbing; no controls did. Sixteen workers showed lung shadowing on X-ray; no controls did. Low vital capacity was found in 13 workers and one control. Low total lung capacity was found in seven workers and no controls. Workers with X-ray changes had lower average vital capacity and diffusion capacity than workers without, though their dust exposures did not differ significantly. Lung function generally matched X-ray and clinical findings poorly, and showed no consistent link with dust exposure. The authors concluded that sustained exposure to excessive talc dust can produce symptoms and abnormal lung function even without clear-cut X-ray evidence of lung infiltration.

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: Cross-sectional clinical and lung function study of talc mill workers compared with an unexposed control group
• Who was studied: 43 talc workers in milling operations with more than ten years' exposure and no previous occupational dust exposure, aged 29 to 69 (mean 50.1). Controls were 41 males of varied occupations with no prior occupational dust exposure, living in the same county. Study by the New York State Division of Industrial Hygiene; published 1965.
• Exposure: Talc dust from milling, predominantly talc admixed with tremolite, anthophyllite, serpentine and less than 5% free silica. Mean duration of exposure was 19.0 years and mean weighted average exposure was 62.3 mppcf. All but one worker were above the then-current threshold limit value of 20 mppcf.
• Main results:
  • Dyspnea was reported by 29 of the talc workers in the text (20 minimal, 7 moderate, 2 moderately severe), compared with 2 controls with minimal dyspnea. Table 1 and the exposure analysis give 28 workers.
  • Eight talc workers (millers) showed clubbing; no controls did.
  • 16 of the 43 talc workers showed pulmonary infiltration on chest X-ray and 27 did not; none of the controls showed pulmonary infiltration.
  • Low vital capacity (less than 74.9% predicted) was found in 13 of the 43 talc workers, compared with one control.
  • Total lung capacity below 72.9% predicted was found in seven talc workers and in no controls.
  • Eight of 43 talc workers had a diffusion capacity (DLco) below 17.7 cc/mm Hg/min, compared with three controls.
  • As a group, the talc workers had a greater incidence of abnormal clinical and physiologic respiratory findings than the controls. Mean values differed significantly for all lung function measures except residual volume.
  • Talc workers with X-ray infiltration had significantly lower mean vital capacity than workers without (72.5% versus 83.9% predicted). Their mean DLco was also significantly lower (19.2 versus 27.1 cc/mm Hg/min). Exposure duration and weighted average exposure did not differ significantly between these two groups.
  • For the exposed group as a whole, lung function impairment correlated poorly with clinical and X-ray findings. No consistent correlation was found between environmental exposure and lung function impairment.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that sustained exposure to excessive concentrations of talc dust can produce respiratory symptoms and signs and abnormal lung function even in the absence of clear-cut radiologic evidence of pulmonary infiltration.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Talc and vermiculite.

Related studies

• Pulmonary ventilatory function in talcosis of lung — M. Kleinfeld, J. Messite, et al. (1964)
• Talc pneumoconiosis: a report of six patients with postmortem findings — M. Kleinfeld, C.P. Giel, et al. (1963)
• Relationship between chest X-ray findings and pulmonary function tests in dust workers — Y. Tonori, M. Niitsuya, et al. (2005)
• Correlation between respiratory symptoms and pulmonary function in asbestos-exposed workers — C.A. Brodkin, S. Barnhart, et al. (1993)
• The dust hazard in tremolite talc mining — L. Greenburg (1947)
• Diffuse mesothelioma and exposure to asbestos dust in the Merseyside area — W.G. Owen (1964)

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