Environmental exposure to asbestos: A factor in the rising rate of cancer in the industrialized world?

Our plain-English summary of Environmental exposure to asbestos: A factor in the rising rate of cancer in the industrialized world?, by M.R. Becklake (Chest, 1979).

The study

• Author: M.R. Becklake
• Journal: Chest
• Published: 1979;76(3):245-7
• Type of article: Editorial
• Cited by: 4 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. 001011).

In plain English

This editorial, not a research study, commented on a case-control study by Churg and Warnock about whether low levels of asbestos in city air add to cancer rates. As the editorial described it, Churg and Warnock counted asbestos bodies in lung samples from people who died with lung or gastrointestinal cancer and from matched controls. The counts were related to sex and occupation, not to cancer. The author called this reassuring. Agreeing with the study's authors, however, the author said this did not necessarily clear urban asbestos pollution. One reason given was that the case-control approach was likely to be much less powerful for common cancers such as lung cancer, which is also linked to cigarettes. Short uncoated fibers were not counted. Also, most asbestos bodies in city dwellers' lungs have amphibole cores, although most asbestos used is chrysotile. Churg and Warnock did not study mesothelioma. On that cancer, the author said urban exposure could not easily be discounted. The author still saw no reason to change the Lyon conference conclusion of no evidence of a risk to the general public at present. The author urged physicians to take complete work histories.

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: Editorial commenting on another study (Churg and Warnock's case-control study); no new data
• Who was studied: No population of its own; the editorial discussed Churg and Warnock's case-control study of lung samples from patients who died with lung or gastrointestinal cancer and matched controls who died of other causes
• Exposure: Low-level environmental (urban air) asbestos exposure, with discussion of chrysotile versus amphibole fibers and of occupational exposure
• Main results:
  • As described by the editorial, Churg and Warnock found that asbestos body counts were related to sex (higher in men) and occupation, but not to the presence of lung or gastrointestinal cancer
  • The author, agreeing with the study's authors, stated that the failure to show an association does not necessarily exonerate urban asbestos pollution
  • The author wrote that the case-control approach is likely to be much less powerful in the study of common cancers such as lung cancer, which are also causally linked to the cigarette
  • The author noted that short, uncoated, submicroscopic fibers, which may be the relevant ones for cancer, were not counted in the Churg and Warnock study
  • The author noted that although most commercially used asbestos is chrysotile, the cores of most asbestos bodies in urban dwellers' lungs are amphibole asbestos
  • On mesothelioma, the author wrote that urban exposure cannot easily be discounted, even though existing evidence at present does not support this possibility
  • The author saw no reason to modify the Lyon conference conclusion that, for mesothelial tumors, there is no evidence of a risk to the general public at present
  • The author stated that asbestos bodies readily seen in specimens without concentration imply much greater numbers and almost certainly occupational exposure, and that physicians should take a complete and systematic work history
  • The author reminded clinicians that there are of the order of 30 other recognized human carcinogens, some encountered at work
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the Churg and Warnock findings were reassuring but did not rule out urban asbestos pollution as a contributing factor, and that an occupational history is a powerful but underused clinical tool

Topics

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

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

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