Extrapulmonary neoplasms among asbestos-exposed power plant workers

Our plain-English summary of Extrapulmonary neoplasms among asbestos-exposed power plant workers, by I.G. Ron, H. Ron, Y. Lerman (International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 1999).

The study

• Authors: I.G. Ron, H. Ron, Y. Lerman
• Journal: International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health
• Published: 1999;5(4):304-6
• Type of article: Case report
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Three cases of fatal extrapulmonary neoplasms among asbestos-exposed power plant workers are described. These cases add to the growing evidence for a causal relationship between asbestos exposures and extrapulmonary neoplasms.

In plain English

This brief report described three men who worked in power stations of the Israel Electric Corporation in Israel and died of cancers outside the lungs. All three had handled asbestos insulation without protection for more than a decade. They were a 60-year-old maintenance worker employed for 37 years, a 57-year-old employee of 17 years, and a 50-year-old insulation worker employed for 15 years who wrapped asbestos blankets around pipes. The article did not name a fiber type. The first two men each had a 20 pack-year smoking history. Both developed kidney cancer and died six years and two years after diagnosis. The second man also had bilateral pleural thickening that resembled asbestos-related pleural disease. The third man had never smoked. He had a poorly differentiated stomach carcinoma that had spread to the bone marrow, bones and lungs, and a biopsy found what the article called asbestos flakes in his lungs. He died about eight months after diagnosis. The authors suggested that asbestos exposure may have played a role in these kidney and stomach cancers. They called for larger population-based studies of power plant workers.

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: Case report (brief report of three cases)
• Who was studied: Three men employed by the Israel Electric Corporation in power stations in Israel: a 60-year-old maintenance worker (37 years of employment, 20 pack-years of smoking), a 57-year-old employee (17 years, 20 pack-years of smoking), and a 50-year-old never-smoker in the insulation department (15 years)
• Exposure: Unprotected work with asbestos insulation in power plants for more than a decade: stripping and replacing disintegrating asbestos insulation, applying asbestos powder paste, and cutting and wrapping asbestos blankets around pipes. Fiber type not specified.
• Main results:
  • Case 1 (60-year-old maintenance worker): clear-cell carcinoma of the right kidney, with recurrences and lung metastases; he died six years after the original diagnosis
  • Case 2 (57-year-old worker): primary malignant renal-cell carcinoma of the right kidney
  • Case 2 also had bilateral pleural thickening that resembled asbestos-related pleural disease
  • Case 2 died two years after the initial diagnosis from respiratory insufficiency caused by metastatic lung disease and the pleural component
  • Case 3 (50-year-old insulation worker, never-smoker): poorly differentiated carcinoma of the stomach with metastases to the bone marrow, bones and lungs
  • In Case 3, a biopsy revealed asbestos flakes in the lungs
  • Case 3 died about eight months after the initial diagnosis
• The authors' conclusion: The authors suggested that asbestos exposure may have played a role in these kidney and gastric cancers. They said the cases showed the need for larger population-based studies of power plant workers.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Power plants and utilities, Stomach cancer.

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

Related studies

• Asbestos related health hazards among power plant workers — Y. Lerman, A. Finkelstein, et al. (1990)
• Malignant mesothelioma in thermoelectric power plant workers in Italy — P. Crosignani, F. Forastiere, et al. (1995)
• Mortality among workers in the geothermal power plants at Larderello, Italy — E. Pira, M. Turbiglio, et al. (1999)
• Occupational exposures during routine activities in coal-fueled power plants — M.J. Bird, D.L. MacIntosh, et al. (2004)
• Occupational exposure to asbestos during renovation of oil-shale fuelled power plants in Estonia — M. Kangur (2007)
• Exposure to airborne asbestos in thermal power plants in Mongolia — N. Damiran, E.K. Silbergeld, et al. (2015)

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