Malignant mesothelioma in Pilbara Aborigines

Our plain-English summary of Malignant mesothelioma in Pilbara Aborigines, by A.W. Musk, N.H. de Klerk, J.L. Eccles, et al (Australian Journal of Public Health, 1995).

The study

• Authors: A.W. Musk, N.H. de Klerk, J.L. Eccles, J. Hansen, K.B. Shilkin
• Journal: Australian Journal of Public Health
• Published: 1995;19(5):520-2
• Type of article: Case report, Review
• Cited by: 10 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Malignant mesothelioma occurred in a female Aborigine after environmental exposure to asbestos. All known cases of the disease in Aborigines in Western Australia were reviewed; all occurred in Pilbara residents. Most were exposed while involved in the transport of asbestos from the Wittenoom crocidolite operation. Based on recent estimates of the size of the Aboriginal population in the Pilbara region, their incidence of this disease (250 per million for ages 15 and over) is one of the highest population-based rates recorded.

In plain English

This brief report described one patient and reviewed all known cases of mesothelioma among Aboriginal people in Western Australia. A 55-year-old Aboriginal woman had a biopsy that showed malignant pleural mesothelioma of epithelial type, and she died early in 1995. Her exposure to asbestos was nonoccupational. Over a long period she had lived in the Pilbara region near where chrysotile (white asbestos) and crocidolite (blue asbestos) were mined. Registry records held information on 11 other Aboriginal people who developed mesothelioma after 1975 in Western Australia. All 12 lived in the Pilbara, and she was the first woman among them. Eight had worked with crocidolite at Wittenoom or Point Samson. One had played as a child in asbestos storage sheds. Two had lived at or near Wittenoom with no documented work exposure. The authors used an estimate of about 6000 Aboriginal people living in the Pilbara. On that basis they calculated a crude rate of about 250 per million person-years over the last six years for those aged 15 and over. An addendum reported a further case in a 60-year-old man. The authors concluded that the risk from past exposure would probably keep rising and that further studies were indicated.

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: Brief report: a case report of one patient plus a review of registry records of all known mesothelioma cases in Aboriginal people in Western Australia, with a crude incidence estimate
• Who was studied: A 55-year-old Aboriginal woman referred from the Aboriginal Medical Service in Roebourne, plus 11 other Aboriginal people in Western Australia with mesothelioma after 1975 (12 in total, all Pilbara residents), and one further case (a 60-year-old man) reported in an addendum
• Exposure: For the woman: nonoccupational exposure while living near Wittenoom, where chrysotile and crocidolite were mined. For the other cases: mostly work with crocidolite at Wittenoom or Point Samson (lumping, trucking, pipe-laying), childhood play in storage sheds, or residence near Wittenoom
• Main results:
  • The woman's pleuroscopy biopsy showed infiltrating malignant pleural mesothelioma of epithelial type. She received no specific therapy and died early in 1995.
  • The area where the woman lived was near where both chrysotile (white asbestos) and crocidolite (blue asbestos) were mined. Her first exposure to both occurred about 38 years before the report.
  • Of the 12 Aboriginal cases, 8 were known to have worked with crocidolite at Wittenoom or Point Samson.
  • Of the 12 cases, two had lived at Wittenoom or nearby without documented occupational exposure. One other case had played in wharf storage sheds at Point Samson as a child.
  • The authors attributed at least 8 of the 12 cases to the practice of transporting Wittenoom asbestos in hessian bags.
  • The authors estimated that about 6000 of the roughly 40 000 Aboriginal people in Western Australia lived in the Pilbara. On that basis, the crude incidence of malignant mesothelioma over the last six years was about 250 per million person-years for those aged 15 and over. The authors described this as 5 to 10 times higher than other population-based rates, apart from the rate due to erionite exposure in Karain, Turkey.
  • Addendum: a further case of malignant mesothelioma was confirmed by needle biopsy in early 1995 in a 60-year-old Aboriginal man. He had worked on a sheep station near Wittenoom, had visited the mine workshop, and had driven bulldozers in other mines in the area. He died 14 weeks later.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the risk of mesothelioma from past exposures would probably continue to increase. They suggested studies to establish the extent of the problem, including registration of people likely to have been exposed, fibre counting of available lung tissue, and estimation of past airborne exposure levels.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The number of Aboriginal people exposed in the region, including through casual employment, is unknown, because employment records for Aborigines were never made. The authors stated that future incidence therefore cannot be predicted.

Mines named here

Asbestos mines this study is about. Each mine's page says who ran it, when it worked, and what it produced.

• Wittenoom, Western Australia

All asbestos mines

Topics

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

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Malignant Mesothelioma, Environmental Exposure, Wittenoom, Crocidolite.

Related studies

• Age and sex differences in malignant mesothelioma after residential exposure to blue asbestos (crocidolite) — A. Reid, G. Berry, et al. (2007)
• Environmental exposure to crocidolite and mesothelioma: exposure-response relationships — J. Hansen, N.H. de Klerk, et al. (1998)
• Predicted mortality from malignant mesothelioma among women exposed to blue asbestos at Wittenoom, Western Australia — A. Reid, G. Berry, et al. (2009)
• Malignant pleural and peritoneal mesotheliomas in former miners and millers of crocidolite at Wittenoom, Western Australia — G. Berry, N.H. de Klerk, et al. (2004)
• Malignant mesotheliomas in former miners and millers of crocidolite at Wittenoom (Western Australia) after more than 50 years follow-up — G. Berry, A. Reid, et al. (2012)
• Mortality of former crocidolite (blue asbestos) miners and millers at Wittenoom — A.W. Musk, N.H. de Klerk, et al. (2008)

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