Letter to the editor on commentary: malignant mesothelioma incidence among talc miners and millers in New York state by M M Finkelstein

Our plain-English summary of Letter to the editor on commentary: malignant mesothelioma incidence among talc miners and millers in New York state by M M Finkelstein, by R.P. Nolan, J.F. Gamble, G.W. Gibbs (American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 2013).

The study

• Authors: R.P. Nolan, J.F. Gamble, G.W. Gibbs
• Journal: American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Published: 2013;56(9):1116-8
• Type of article: Letter, Comment
• Cited by: 8 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This is a letter to the editor, not a research study, and it reports no new data. The authors, who disclosed that they have acted as consultants in asbestos and talc litigation, responded to a 2012 commentary by Finkelstein. That commentary had concluded that dust from New York State (NYS) tremolitic talc ores is capable of causing mesothelioma. The authors argued that Finkelstein's incidence rate ratios were only crude approximations because the cohort's age distribution was not known. They stated that tremolite and anthophyllite particles in NYS tremolitic talc are non-asbestiform. Reviewing the cases' work histories, they argued that only one case lacked a questionable diagnosis or a potential alternative cause, such as commercial asbestos exposure elsewhere. They cited earlier animal studies by other researchers. They also noted that most of the commentary's mesothelioma cases were mill workers, while a reported lung cancer excess was among mine workers. The authors concluded that commercial asbestos exposure was a more likely explanation for almost all of the cases.

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: Letter to the editor responding to a published commentary; no original data. The authors disclose acting as consultants in asbestos and talc litigation.
• Who was studied: No population was studied. The letter discusses Finkelstein's 2012 commentary on mesothelioma among New York State tremolitic talc miners and millers, a cohort studied by Honda et al. [2002].
• Exposure: NYS tremolitic talc containing tremolite and anthophyllite, which the authors describe as non-asbestiform. Also possible exposure to commercial asbestos from other jobs.
• Main results:
  • The authors declined to say whether mesothelioma cases exceeded the number expected. They argued that the cohort's age distribution would be needed to calculate this.
  • The authors argued that the work histories reported by Hull et al. were incomplete, and that asbestos-related employment occurs in the county where NYS talc is mined.
  • Re-examining the cases in Finkelstein's Table I, the authors argued that cases 2, 3, 4 and 5 had potential asbestos exposure elsewhere and that case 6 had a questionable diagnosis. In their view this left only one case without a potential alternative cause.
  • Citing earlier animal studies (Addison and McConnell, 2008), the authors stated that NYS tremolitic talc and non-asbestiform tremolite from other locales did not produce cancer when injected into two species. In one cited hamster experiment, tremolite asbestos produced tumors in 25 of 87 hamsters.
  • Citing Honda et al. [2002], the authors noted that five of the six mesotheliomas in the commentary were mill workers. The 3.9-fold excess lung cancer, by contrast, was in mine workers, with no excess among mill workers.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that occupational histories suggest exposure to commercial asbestos is a more likely explanation for almost all of the mesothelioma cases in Finkelstein's commentary.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Mesothelioma, Talc and vermiculite.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Malignant Mesothelioma, Talc.

Related studies

• Malignant mesothelioma incidence among talc miners and millers in New York State — M.M. Finkelstein (2012)
• Mortality among talc miners and millers in New York State — M. Kleinfeld, J. Messite, et al. (1967)
• Reply to letter by Nolan and colleagues--re: the carcinogenicity of New York state talc dusts in humans — M. Finkelstein (2013)
• Response to Letter to the Editor Regarding "Ambient Asbestos Fiber Concentrations and Long-Term Trends in Pleural Mesothelioma Incidence Between Urban and Rural Areas in the United States (1973-2012)" by Finkelstein — K.A. Keeton, M.E. Glynn, et al. (2018)
• An update of a mortality study of talc miners and millers in Italy — M. Coggiola, D. Bosio, et al. (2003)
• Mortality of Talc Miners and Millers From Val Chisone, Northern Italy: An Updated Cohort Study — E. Pira, M. Coggiola, et al. (2017)

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