Long fibre asbestos in a chrysotile textile worker

Our plain-English summary of Long fibre asbestos in a chrysotile textile worker, by A. Churg, R.A. Harley (Lancet, 1984).

The study

• Authors: A. Churg, R.A. Harley
• Journal: Lancet
• Published: 1984;1(8381):845
• Type of article: Letter
• Cited by: 5 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 001683).

Summary of the article

The authors addressed epidemiological evidence that workers using processed chrysotile, for example in the textile industry, may have more asbestosis and lung carcinoma than chrysotile miners with comparable dust exposure, possibly because of differences in fibre size. They carried out a mineralogical study of the lung of a long-term worker at an asbestos textile plant in South Carolina who had died of asbestosis. Formalin-fixed post-mortem lung tissue was dissolved in bleach, and the mineral particles were collected and analysed. Fibre sizes were compared with those found in a group of Quebec chrysotile industry workers. In the textile worker, 47% of chrysotile fibres were longer than 5 µm, compared with 15% in the chrysotile miners. For tremolite group amphiboles (tremolite, actinolite and anthophyllite, which are natural components of the chrysotile ore body) the figures were 18% and 6%. The authors described a marked shift towards longer chrysotile fibres in the textile worker and a less pronounced but probably significant shift for the tremolite group. They noted general agreement that long fibres are associated with disease. On that basis they concluded that their findings offered an explanation for the differences in disease incidence between textile and mining groups. They also noted that long tremolite fibres, which were found in this lung, have considerable potential for inducing mesothelioma, whereas the carcinogenic potential of chrysotile fibres in man is in dispute.

PubMed has no abstract for this study, and the article doesn't print one. We wrote this summary from the full article with the help of AI. It is not the authors' wording.

In plain English

This letter to the editor reported a mineralogical analysis of lung tissue from one person: a long-term worker in an asbestos textile plant in South Carolina who had died of asbestosis. Lung tissue taken after death was dissolved in bleach, and the mineral particles were collected and analysed. Fibre sizes were compared with those seen in a group of Quebec chrysotile industry workers, whom the authors also called chrysotile miners. The letter's text does not say how many. In the textile worker, 47% of chrysotile fibres were longer than 5 micrometres, compared with 15% in the chrysotile miners. For the 'tremolite group' amphiboles (tremolite, actinolite and anthophyllite, which occur naturally in chrysotile ore), the figures were 18% versus 6%. The authors called this shift less pronounced but probably significant. The authors concluded that their findings offer an explanation for the differences in disease seen between textile and mining workers. They also noted that fairly long tremolite fibres were found in the textile worker's lung. The findings come from a single lung.

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 reporting a mineralogical study of lung tissue from a single worker, compared with a group of chrysotile industry workers
• Who was studied: One long-term worker in an asbestos textile plant in South Carolina who died of asbestosis. The comparison group was Quebec chrysotile industry workers (number not given in the text).
• Exposure: Long-term work in a chrysotile asbestos textile plant. Fibres analysed in the lung were chrysotile and 'tremolite group' amphiboles (tremolite, actinolite and anthophyllite), which are natural components of the chrysotile ore body.
• Main results:
  • 47% of chrysotile fibres in the textile worker's lung were longer than 5 micrometres, compared with 15% in the chrysotile miners
  • For tremolite group fibres, 18% were longer than 5 micrometres in the textile worker versus 6% in the miners. The authors described this as a less pronounced but probably significant shift.
  • Fairly long tremolite fibres were found in the textile worker's lung
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that their findings offer an explanation for the differences in disease incidence observed in textile workers as opposed to mining groups

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Asbestos textiles, Asbestosis, Chrysotile.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Chrysotile, Carcinoma, Quebec Chrysotile, Tremolite, Amphibole Group, Actinolite, Anthophyllite, Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• Increased lung cancer mortality among chrysotile asbestos textile workers is more strongly associated with exposure to long thin fibres — D. Loomis, J.M. Dement, et al. (2012)
• Follow-up study of chrysotile asbestos textile workers: cohort mortality and case-control analyses — J.M. Dement, D.P. Brown, et al. (1994)
• Cause-specific mortality in a Chinese chrysotile textile worker cohort — X. Wang, S. Lin, et al. (2013)
• Lung cancer mortality in North Carolina and South Carolina chrysotile asbestos textile workers — L. Elliott, D. Loomis, et al. (2012)
• Cancer mortality among Chinese chrysotile asbestos textile workers — X.R. Wang, I.T. Yu, et al. (2012)
• Exposure-specific lung cancer risks in Chinese chrysotile textile workers and mining workers — X. Wang, S. Lin, et al. (2014)

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