Man-made vitreous fibers and risk of respiratory system cancer: a review of the epidemiologic evidence

Our plain-English summary of Man-made vitreous fibers and risk of respiratory system cancer: a review of the epidemiologic evidence, by I.M. Lee, C.H. Hennekens, D. Trichopoulos, et al (Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 1995).

The study

• Authors: I.M. Lee, C.H. Hennekens, D. Trichopoulos, J.E. Buring
• Journal: Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• Published: 1995;37(6):725-38
• Type of article: Review
• Cited by: 15 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Because asbestos has been demonstrated to cause lung cancer, the issue regarding safety of other fibers, including man-made vitreous fibers (MMVF), has been raised. We reviewed the available evidence, in particular the epidemiologic data, on MMVF and the risk of respiratory system cancer. Glass fibers (especially glass wool) have been studied most extensively. Taken together, the data indicate that among those occupationally exposed, glass fibers do not appear to increase risk of respiratory system cancer. Of six studies that specifically examined rock and slag wool workers, three reported excesses in respiratory system cancer among such workers. Two of these three studies, however, did not control for cigarette smoking, a powerful predictor of such cancers. There are no published studies, in humans, of refractory ceramic fibers. Future studies evaluating the potential of MMVF to increase risk of respiratory system cancer will not add to existing knowledge if investigators do not address potential confounding by cigarette smoking and other workplace carcinogens.

In plain English

This article was a review, not a new study. The authors gathered the published evidence, mainly from studies of people (epidemiologic studies), on whether man-made vitreous fibers raise the risk of cancer of the respiratory system. These synthetic fibers are made mainly from glass, rock, slag or clay and are used mostly in heat and sound insulation. The authors noted that asbestos has been shown to cause lung cancer, which raised questions about other fibers. Glass fibers, especially glass wool, had been studied the most. Taken together, the authors found that glass fibers did not appear to increase respiratory system cancer risk among workers exposed on the job. Of six studies of rock and slag wool workers, three reported excess respiratory system cancer, but two of those three did not control for cigarette smoking. The authors found no published human studies of refractory ceramic fibers. They concluded that future studies would not add to existing knowledge unless they dealt with smoking and other cancer-causing substances in the workplace. The supplied text stopped partway through the article's second page.

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: Review of the available evidence, mainly epidemiologic studies
• Who was studied: Published studies of workers exposed to man-made vitreous fibers. The surviving part of Table 1 lists case-control studies from the United States and Sweden, including glass fiber plants, rock and slag wool plants, and Swedish construction workers.
• Exposure: Man-made vitreous fibers: glass fibers (glass wool and glass filaments), rock wool, slag wool and refractory ceramic fibers. Asbestos is mentioned only as background.
• Main results:
  • Glass fibers, especially glass wool, had been studied most extensively. Taken together, the data indicated that glass fibers did not appear to increase respiratory system cancer risk among workers exposed on the job.
  • Of six studies that specifically examined rock and slag wool workers, three reported excesses in respiratory system cancer among those workers.
  • Two of the three studies that reported excesses among rock and slag wool workers did not control for cigarette smoking.
  • There were no published human studies of refractory ceramic fibers.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that future studies of man-made vitreous fibers and respiratory system cancer will not add to existing knowledge unless investigators address possible confounding by cigarette smoking and other workplace carcinogens.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Vitreous, Lung Cancer, Confounding.

Related studies

• Historical cohort study of US man-made vitreous fiber production workers: II. Mortality from mesothelioma — G.M. Marsh, M.J. Gula, et al. (2001)
• Historical cohort study of US man-made vitreous fiber production workers: I. 1992 fiberglass cohort follow-up: initial findings — G.M. Marsh, A.O. Youk, et al. (2001)
• Respiratory cancer and exposure to man-made vitreous fibers: a systematic review — D. Berrigan (2002)
• Risk of mesothelioma and occupational exposure to asbestos and man-made vitreous fibers: evidence from two case-control studies in Montreal, Canada — J. Pintos, M.E. Parent, et al. (2009)
• Lung cancer and exposure to man-made vitreous fibers: results from a pooled case-control study in Germany — H. Pohlabeln, K.H. Jöckel, et al. (2000)
• Systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiological literature evaluating the association between exposure to man-made vitreous fibers and respiratory tract cancers — N. Suder Egnot, S.M. Benson, et al. (2020)

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