How are we going to change our attitudes and opinions regarding asbestos and cancer in the next 20 years?

Our plain-English summary of How are we going to change our attitudes and opinions regarding asbestos and cancer in the next 20 years?, by J. Bignon (American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 1992).

The study

• Author: J. Bignon
• Journal: American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Published: 1992;22(3):443-6
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This article was a short commentary, not a research study. It responded to a 1991 review by Enterline on changing attitudes about asbestos and cancer between 1934 and 1965. The author gave personal remarks on why the asbestos problem was raised in France two decades later than in the USA and UK. The author pointed to underdeveloped occupational epidemiology and probable economic reasons, and noted that French legislation controlling fiber concentrations in asbestos plants came only in 1977. The author then described four unresolved controversies. The first was whether asbestos-related lung cancer is always preceded by lung fibrosis. The second was why studies by others link mesothelioma more often to amphiboles, including tremolite as a contaminant, than to chrysotile, while cited rodent experiments show no such difference. The third was the cause of the roughly 20-30% of mesothelioma cases that other studies report without characterized asbestos exposure. The fourth was the health effects of very low exposures, such as in buildings. The author expected these to take one or two more decades, or longer, to resolve.

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 (personal opinion piece responding to a published review); no new data
• Who was studied: No study population. The commentary discusses the history of asbestos recognition and regulation in France compared with the USA and UK.
• Exposure: Asbestos in general, including occupational exposure, amphiboles (with tremolite as a contaminant) versus chrysotile, low-dose exposure in buildings, and asbestos substitutes
• Main results:
  • The author noted that French legislation controlling fiber concentrations in asbestos plants was only enacted in 1977.
  • The author stated that the question of whether asbestos-related lung cancer is always preceded by pulmonary fibrosis remains unsolved.
  • Citing earlier animal studies by others, the author stated that all asbestos types induce mesothelioma at the same rate in rodents, which conflicts with human evidence linking mesothelioma more often to amphiboles.
  • Citing other epidemiological studies, the author stated that about 20-30% of mesothelioma cases are without characterized exposure to asbestos, and that their cause is an open question.
  • The author stated that the dose-response relationship for lung cancer and mesothelioma at very low concentrations, such as 0.001 f/ml or less in buildings, cannot be assessed by classic epidemiological methods.
  • The author suggested that some asbestos substitutes may not be as safe as expected.
• The authors' conclusion: The author expected the controversies to take one or two more decades, or longer, to resolve. The author called for scientists, industrialists, politicians and consumers to work together toward a consensus on acceptable risk.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Lung cancer, Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• Re: "Changing opinions and attitudes regarding asbestos and cancer 1934-1965" — G. Berry (1992)
• Re: "Changing attitudes and opinions regarding asbestos and cancer 1934-1965" — J. Keane (1992)
• Changing attitudes and opinions regarding asbestos and cancer 1934-1965 — P.E. Enterline (1991)
• Re: Attitudes and opinions regarding asbestos and cancer, 1937-1965 — D.J. Kilpatrick, M. Kottek (1994)
• Re: Attitudes and opinions regarding asbestos and cancer, 1934-1965 — J.M. Harrington (1993)
• Re: Historical reasons for attitudes and opinions regarding asbestos and cancer, 1934-1965 — M. Corn, J.K. Corn (1993)

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