FIOH-sponsored newsletter misrepresents asbestos hazards in Zimbabwe

Our plain-English summary of FIOH-sponsored newsletter misrepresents asbestos hazards in Zimbabwe, by J.C. Bailar, S.G. Ballal, M. Boback, et al (International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 2006).

The study

• Authors: J.C. Bailar, S.G. Ballal, M. Boback, B. Castleman, H.L. Chee, M. Cherniack, D. Christiani, A. Cicolella, J. Fernández de D'Pool, D. Egilman, A.L. Frank, M.A. Garcia, F. Giannasi, M. Greenberg, R.J. Harrison, J. Huff, P. Infante, E.J. de Souza, T.K. Joshi, P. Kamuzora, L. Kazan-Allen, D.G. Kern, H. Kromhout, S. Kuswadji, J. LaDou, R.A. Lemen, C. Levenstein, B. Luethje, F. Mancini, B.L. Meel, Y. Mekonnen, R. Mendes, F. Murie, J. Myers, R. O'Neill, E. Osaro, D. Paek, E. Richter, E. Robertson, S.W. Samuels, C.L. Soskolne, R. Stuckey, D.T. Teitelbaum, B. Terracini, A. Thébaud-Mony, M. Vanhoorne, X. Wang, A. Watterson, R. Wedeen
• Journal: International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health
• Published: 2006;12(3):254-8
• Cited by: 3 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH) has received support from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labor Office (ILO) to publish the African Newsletter on Occupational Health and Safety. The African Newsletter on Occupational Health and Safety should not be a medium for industry propaganda, or the source of misinformation among the workers of Africa. Instead, FIOH should provide the same level of scientific information in Africa that it does in Finland and other developed countries.

In plain English

This was not a research study. It was a commentary signed by a large international group of authors. It criticized an article by Mutetwa and colleagues in the December 2005 African Newsletter on Occupational Health and Safety, which the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH) publishes with support from the WHO and the ILO. That newsletter article reported chrysotile fiber levels in two asbestos-cement factories in Zimbabwe. It stated that all levels except one were below the Zimbabwean asbestos industry action limit of 0.15 fibers/ml. The authors called these results improbable for a process using chrysotile. They noted that the article did not mention quality control and gave no information on the training of the hygienists or the laboratory, and they said independent repeat sampling was needed to validate the findings. FIOH had replied that the newsletter is not a peer-reviewed scientific journal. The authors stated that all forms of asbestos cause asbestosis, lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma. They concluded that the newsletter should not carry industry propaganda and that FIOH should provide Africa the same level of scientific information it provides in Finland.

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: Commentary (open letter by multiple signatories) criticizing a newsletter article; no original data
• Who was studied: No study population of its own; the commentary concerns a newsletter article (Mutetwa et al., December 2005) that reported fiber measurements in two asbestos-cement factories in Zimbabwe
• Exposure: Chrysotile asbestos in asbestos-cement manufacturing in Zimbabwe, as measured in the criticized newsletter article
• Main results:
  • The criticized newsletter article (not this commentary) reported that all fiber levels except one in the two factories were below the Zimbabwean asbestos industry action limit of 0.15 fibers/ml
  • The authors judged the reported exposure results improbable for a process using chrysotile to make cement
  • The authors noted that the newsletter article gave no data on the training and qualifications of the hygienists who collected the samples or of the laboratory, and they said independent repeat sampling was required to validate the findings
  • FIOH's Director General and the newsletter's Editor-in-Chief replied that the newsletter is not a peer-reviewed scientific journal
  • The authors stated, citing other work, that all forms of asbestos cause asbestosis, lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the African Newsletter should not be a medium for industry propaganda or misinformation, and that FIOH should provide the same level of scientific information in Africa as it does in Finland and other developed countries

Related studies

• The International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) and its influence on international organizations — N.A. Ashford, B. Castleman, et al. (2002)
• Statement in response to asbestos industry efforts to prevent a ban on asbestos in Pakistan: chrysotile asbestos use is not safe and must be banned — G. Aguilar Madrid, M. Beaudry, et al. (2013)
• Experiences of a state-sponsored notification and screening program for asbestos workers — A.P. Bender, A.N. Williams, et al. (1993)
• Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH): prevention and detection of asbestos-related diseases, 1987-2005 — M.S. Huuskonen, J. Rantanen (2006)
• Assessing quality of life when planning and evaluating worker notification programs: two case examples — B.E. Meyerowitz (1993)
• Media and science: harmless dioxin, benign CFCs, and good asbestos — D.P. Rall (1994)

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