Invited Perspective: Eliminating Toxics to Prevent Disease: Asbestos Leads the Way

Our plain-English summary of Invited Perspective: Eliminating Toxics to Prevent Disease: Asbestos Leads the Way, by D. Kriebel, D.J. Myers (Environmental Health Perspectives, 2022).

The study

• Authors: D. Kriebel, D.J. Myers
• Journal: Environmental Health Perspectives
• Published: 2022;130(5):51305
• Type of article: Comment
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

In plain English

This invited perspective was a commentary that reported no new data. The authors, writing as occupational and environmental epidemiologists, discussed a research letter by Rath et al. in the same issue. That letter gave a 15-year update on the link between countries' asbestos consumption and their death rates from asbestos-related diseases. The authors said they found those results convincing. They noted two reasons experts doubt such country-level studies: a cross-country trend may not hold for individuals, and a country consuming asbestos does not mean anyone breathed the fibers. They argued that asbestosis and most mesotheliomas give asbestos a distinct signature in national statistics, and that Rath et al. reasonably left out lung cancer which, though an important part of the asbestos death toll, has many other causes. They argued that exposure controls are never fully effective, that eliminating a hazard is the best control, and that banning a chemical can be better for business than regulating it. The authors concluded that the evidence signals a need to eliminate asbestos from all products and materials, and called for a worldwide ban.

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: Invited perspective (commentary) on another article; no original study or new data
• Who was studied: No study population of its own. The commentary discussed a research letter by Rath et al. that gave a 15-year update on the country-level link between asbestos consumption and deaths from asbestos-related diseases.
• Exposure: National asbestos consumption, as discussed in the Rath et al. research letter. No fiber types are specified.
• Main results:
  • The authors argued that a trend seen across countries (the 'ecological fallacy' concern) may not hold among individuals.
  • The authors argued that a country consuming asbestos does not necessarily mean people were exposed to asbestos fibers.
  • The authors argued that asbestos-related diseases (asbestosis, which has no other causes, and mesothelioma, mostly caused by asbestos) give asbestos a distinct signature that makes its impact easier to see in national statistics.
  • The authors said Rath et al. appropriately excluded lung cancer deaths because lung cancer has many other causes.
  • The authors noted that lung cancer is nonetheless an important component of the asbestos death toll.
  • The authors argued that devices and practices for reducing exposure are never fully effective and that controls drift into failure over time.
  • The authors argued that, for other carcinogens, the lack of a visible link between consumption and cancer rates does not mean those chemicals are not causing cancers.
  • The authors argued that banning a chemical can be better for business than trying to regulate it.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the Rath et al. letter should be seen as a clear signal of the need to eliminate asbestos from all products and materials. They expressed hope for a total worldwide asbestos ban.

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