Greater public awareness of health hazards of asbestos exposure

Our plain-English summary of Greater public awareness of health hazards of asbestos exposure (Public Health Reports, 1979).

The study

• Journal: Public Health Reports
• Published: 1979;94(4):388-9
• Type of article: News
• Read it: PubMed · Free full text

In plain English

This is a short, unsigned news item in Public Health Reports, not a research paper. It reported results of two identical national surveys about asbestos, done for the National Cancer Institute by the Gallup Organization in June and October 1978. Each survey asked 1,500 adults 8 questions. The surveys bracketed a public awareness campaign about the dangers of asbestos exposure that federal departments, labor unions and employers launched in August 1978 through television, radio, magazine advertisements and other media. In October, 62 percent of adults said they had recently heard or seen something about asbestos hazards, compared with 50 percent in June. The share saying that seeing a doctor reduces the risk rose from 25 percent to 31 percent. Only 4 percent said quitting smoking reduces the risk of asbestos-related disease. Fewer than one in three respondents in either survey linked asbestos to brake lining work. People over 50 became more aware, but manual laborers still lagged behind the general population. Understanding that asbestos illness may take more than 20 years to develop improved substantially but remained low. The item stated that the public is becoming more aware of asbestos hazards.

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 item reporting the results of two identical national opinion surveys (June and October 1978), conducted by the Gallup Organization for the National Cancer Institute
• Who was studied: Adult Americans; 1,500 adults in each of two national surveys, June and October 1978, each asked 8 questions; target groups were persons over age 50 and manual laborers
• Exposure: Not an asbestos exposure study; the subject was public awareness of asbestos hazards before and after a public awareness campaign begun in August 1978 using television, radio, magazine advertisements, special publications and other media
• Main results:
  • Among adult Americans, 62 percent in October 1978 had recently heard or seen something about asbestos hazards, compared with 50 percent in June 1978
  • Most of those who had heard or read about asbestos could link it with lung cancer and lung damage, or at least identify it as hazardous
  • Only 4 percent said quitting smoking can reduce the risks of asbestos-related disease in exposed persons
  • 31 percent in October, compared with 25 percent in June, said seeing a doctor was a way to reduce the health risks of asbestos exposure
  • The older age group became more aware of asbestos hazards, but manual laborers still lagged behind the general population
  • Fewer than one in three respondents in either survey correctly linked asbestos exposure to installing and replacing brake linings
  • Understanding that asbestos-related illness may take more than 20 years to develop improved substantially but remained low in the total sample and in both target subgroups
• The authors' conclusion: The item stated that the public is becoming more aware of the health hazards of asbestos

Topics

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

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