Estimating Occupational Exposure to Asbestos in Australia

Our plain-English summary of Estimating Occupational Exposure to Asbestos in Australia, by M. Kottek, D.J. Kilpatrick (The Annals of Occupational Hygiene, 2016).

The study

• Authors: M. Kottek, D.J. Kilpatrick
• Journal: The Annals of Occupational Hygiene
• Published: 2016;60(4):531-2
• Type of article: Letter, Comment
• Cited by: 4 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Summary of the article

In this letter, two Australian authors commented on the asbestos job-exposure matrix (AsbJEM) published by van Oyen et al. (2015), to which they had contributed unpublished dust measurements. They noted that Australian asbestos exposure limits predated 1964. Victoria adopted a ceiling standard of 5 million particles per cubic foot in 1945, and this level was adopted nationally as an 8-h time-weighted average (TWA) in 1960. They agreed that AsbJEM's estimated annual average exposures appeared very low but argued that some estimates did not 'make sense'. AsbJEM gave cumulative exposures of 2.3 f ml−1·y for a boilermaker and 3.6 f ml−1·y for a fitter who spent their entire working life in the power supply industry (1943–1986). The authors considered these figures inconsistent with the many asbestosis cases they had seen in these workers, and with the 79 f ml−1·y average estimated for metalworkers in a German power supply company. Drawing on work and exposure histories from over 2000 people with asbestos-related disease, they suggested that the expert panel had severely underestimated how often peak exposures occurred. They also questioned the assumption that each peak lasted 15 min, citing a simulation of pipe fitter tasks that recorded short-term exposures of 83 f ml−1 and an 8-h TWA of 86 f ml−1. They expected AsbJEM to distinguish high- and low-exposure jobs but doubted it would improve attribution of individual cases to past exposures. Both authors had given expert evidence for plaintiffs and defendants in asbestos litigation.

PubMed has no abstract for this study, and the article doesn't print one. We wrote this summary from the full article with the help of AI. It is not the authors' wording.

In plain English

This is a letter to the editor, not a research study. The authors commented on a 2015 paper by van Oyen and colleagues describing AsbJEM, a job-exposure matrix estimating past workplace asbestos exposure in Australia. They noted that Victoria adopted a 5 million particles per cubic foot ceiling standard in 1945; the same level became a national eight-hour time-weighted average in 1960. In their opinion, AsbJEM's lifetime cumulative exposures for power-industry work (1943 to 1986), 2.3 fibres per millilitre-years for a boilermaker and 3.6 for a fitter, conflicted with the many asbestosis cases they had seen in these workers. Citing over 2000 work histories from people with asbestos-related disease, they argued that the expert panel severely underestimated how often peak exposures occurred. Separately, citing historic short-term measurements taken during longer tasks, they questioned AsbJEM's assumption that each peak lasted 15 minutes. The authors concluded that AsbJEM would likely separate high- and low-exposure jobs. However, they doubted it would improve attributing individual asbestos-disease cases to particular episodes of past exposure. Both authors had given expert evidence for plaintiffs and defendants in asbestos litigation.

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 commenting on a published job-exposure matrix study (van Oyen et al., 2015); no new study was carried out
• Who was studied: No study population. The letter discusses AsbJEM estimates for Australian job titles, such as boilermakers and fitters in the power supply industry. The authors also draw on their experience taking histories from over 2000 people with asbestos-related disease.
• Exposure: Occupational asbestos exposure in Australia, as estimated by AsbJEM; fiber types are not specified. The letter focuses on cumulative exposure and on peak exposures.
• Main results:
  • The authors noted that Australian exposure limits predated 1964. Victoria adopted a 5 million particles per cubic foot ceiling standard in 1945, and the 5 mppcf standard was adopted nationally as an 8-hour time-weighted average in 1960.
  • The authors cited AsbJEM's lifetime cumulative exposures for a whole working life in the power supply industry (1943 to 1986): 2.3 f/ml-years for a boilermaker and 3.6 f/ml-years for a fitter. In their view, these figures are inconsistent with the many asbestosis cases they have seen in these workers. They also contrasted them with the 79 f/ml-years average estimated by another study (Felten et al., 2010) for metalworkers in a German power supply company.
  • In the authors' opinion, the AsbJEM expert panel severely underestimated how often peak exposures occurred for many job titles. They based this opinion on their work and exposure histories from over 2000 people with asbestos-related disease.
  • The authors also objected that AsbJEM assumed each peak exposure lasted 15 minutes. In their experience, many historic reports of peak exposure were short-term measurements made during tasks that lasted much longer, sometimes an entire shift.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors expected AsbJEM to distinguish high- from low-exposure job titles and to detect the association between asbestos exposure and mesothelioma. They were far from convinced it would improve the attribution of individual cases of asbestos disease to particular episodes of past occupational exposure.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Occupational Exposure, Asbestos Exposure, Million Particles per Cubic Foot (mppcf), Time-Weighted Average (TWA), Cumulative Exposure, Short-Term Exposure, Attribution, Plaintiff.

Related studies

• Response to Kottek and Kilpatrick, 'Estimating Occupational Exposure to Asbestos in Australia' — S. Peters, S.C. van Oyen, et al. (2016)
• Occupational and environmental risk factors for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in Australia: case-control study — M.J. Abramson, T. Murambadoro, et al. (2020)
• Development of a Job-Exposure Matrix (AsbJEM) to Estimate Occupational Exposure to Asbestos in Australia — S.C. van Oyen, S. Peters, et al. (2015)
• Thirty-two cases of mesothelioma in Victoria, Australia: a retrospective survey related to occupational asbestos exposure — J.E. Milne (1976)
• Distribution of mesothelioma cases in different occupational groups and industries in Australia, 1979-1995 — P. Yeung, A. Rogers, et al. (1999)
• The future excess fraction of occupational cancer among those exposed to carcinogens at work in Australia in 2012 — R.N. Carey, S.J. Hutchings, et al. (2017)

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