Fears of a new wave of mesothelioma in home renovators?

Our plain-English summary of Fears of a new wave of mesothelioma in home renovators?, by T. Kirby (The Lancet. Respiratory Medicine, 2013).

The study

• Author: T. Kirby
• Journal: The Lancet. Respiratory Medicine
• Published: 2013;1(1):18
• Cited by: 3 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This is a short news feature by a journalist in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, not an original research study. It reported concern in Australia about a possible "third wave" of mesothelioma among people renovating their own homes, who drill, saw or break up materials without knowing they contain asbestos. The feature described a separate study, published in the Medical Journal of Australia in 2011, that used the Western Australian Mesothelioma Registry to track every case of the disease in that state since the 1960s. As reported in the feature, that study found that do-it-yourself (DIY) renovation accounted for 35% of new mesothelioma cases in women in 2005–08, and that DIY-related exposure caused around 8% of new cases in men in the same period. The proportion was increasing in both sexes. The study's lead author, Bill Musk, was quoted as saying that the individual risk from DIY work is small but that case numbers across the population have been steadily increasing. Another respiratory physician, Matthew Peters, was quoted as saying that predictions of a decline in cases could be premature. The feature also described compensation arrangements in Australia and the UK.

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: News feature (journalistic article) reporting on a separately published registry study and expert comments; not original research
• Who was studied: The feature reported on a separate study that used the Western Australian Mesothelioma Registry to track every case of mesothelioma in Western Australia since the 1960s. The feature does not give case counts.
• Exposure: Asbestos exposure during do-it-yourself home renovation (drilling, sawing and breaking up parts of homes that contain asbestos), compared in the feature's account with earlier occupational exposure in miners and building trades
• Main results:
  • As reported by the feature for the 2011 Western Australian registry study: DIY-related mesothelioma accounted for 35% of new cases in women in 2005–08
  • As reported by the feature for the same study: in men, DIY-related exposure caused around 8% of new mesothelioma cases in the same period (2005–08)
  • As reported by the feature: for both sexes, the proportion of mesothelioma cases related to DIY was increasing
  • Lead author Bill Musk was quoted as saying that the individual risk to people doing DIY is small, but that at a population level the number of cases has been steadily increasing
  • Musk was quoted as saying that most people doing DIY do not know there is asbestos in their home
  • Matthew Peters (Concord Hospital) was quoted as believing that predictions of a decline in mesothelioma cases from late in this decade could be premature
  • The feature reported that Australia has no general government compensation scheme. It also reported that a UK scheme taking effect in 2014 will pay compensation where employers' liability insurance cannot be traced.
• The authors' conclusion: As a news feature, the article drew no research conclusions of its own. It reported that alarm has been raised in Australia about a possible third wave of mesothelioma among home renovators, and its title poses this as a question.

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: Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• Canberra Government to demolish asbestos-contaminated homes — T. Kirby (2014)
• Medicolegal aspects of the third wave of asbestos-related disease in Australia — J.R. Gordon, J. Leigh (2011)
• Increasing incidence of malignant mesothelioma after exposure to asbestos during home maintenance and renovation — N.J. Olsen, P.J. Franklin, et al. (2011)
• Evaluation of take-home exposure and risk associated with the handling of clothing contaminated with chrysotile asbestos — J. Sahmel, C.A. Barlow, et al. (2014)
• Asbestos exposure during home renovation in New South Wales — E.K. Park, D.H. Yates, et al. (2013)
• Student nurses' risk perceptions of home environmental hazards — B.J. Polivka, C. Wills (2014)

Browse more research in The Lancet. Respiratory Medicine, or return to medical research.