Medicolegal aspects of the third wave of asbestos-related disease in Australia

Our plain-English summary of Medicolegal aspects of the third wave of asbestos-related disease in Australia, by J.R. Gordon, J. Leigh (The Medical Journal of Australia, 2011).

The study

• Authors: J.R. Gordon, J. Leigh
• Journal: The Medical Journal of Australia
• Published: 2011;195(5):247-8
• Type of article: Editorial, Comment
• Cited by: 7 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Summary of the article

In this commissioned editorial, a barrister and a public health physician discussed the legal issues raised by the "third wave" of asbestos-related disease in Australia. They described this wave as non-industrial users of asbestos products, including people who cut, fixed or demolished asbestos cement products during home renovation or maintenance, and family members who were present. The editorial accompanied a study by Olsen and colleagues that documented an upward trend in mesothelioma among home renovators. The authors stated that James Hardie and CSR had never systematically warned homeowners of the risks. Wunderlich, a CSR subsidiary, was the only other mainland manufacturer of asbestos cement building products. The authors argued that manufacturers owed a legal duty of care both to people who installed the products and to those who later demolished them. They identified the main disputed issues in mesothelioma claims as whether the manufacturer could and should have warned users, and whether limited exposure caused or contributed to the disease. They stated that no threshold for asbestos causation of mesothelioma had been demonstrated, and that a claimant with acceptable evidence of specific exposure, however slight, should succeed. They described incomplete coverage of the national mesothelioma register from 2001 onwards, welcomed the new Australian Mesothelioma Registry, and called for a complete global ban on asbestos. One author declared that he had appeared for plaintiffs in asbestos claims.

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 was an editorial, not a research study, and it reported no new data of its own. A barrister and a public health lecturer wrote it to accompany a study by Olsen and colleagues in the same journal issue. The authors described that study as documenting an upward trend in mesothelioma among home renovators. The editorial described asbestos cement building products ('fibro') made on the Australian mainland by James Hardie and by Wunderlich, a subsidiary of CSR. Some of these products contained Wittenoom blue asbestos. The authors called non-industrial users of asbestos products, such as do-it-yourself home renovators, the 'third wave' of asbestos disease in Australia. They stated that neither manufacturer had ever systematically warned people with these products in their homes, and they contended that the manufacturers owe these people a legal duty of care. They stated that no threshold for asbestos causing mesothelioma has been demonstrated. They also described gaps in the national mesothelioma register from 2001 onwards. One author declared having appeared for plaintiffs in asbestos damages claims.

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: Editorial (commissioned, externally peer reviewed) giving a medicolegal commentary; no original data
• Who was studied: No population was studied. The editorial discussed non-industrial users of asbestos products in Australia, such as home renovators and family members present during the work.
• Exposure: Asbestos cement building products ('fibro') made by James Hardie and Wunderlich (a CSR subsidiary) from the 1920s until 1984, including products containing Wittenoom blue asbestos, which people cut, fixed or demolished during home renovation and maintenance
• Main results:
  • The authors described the accompanying study by Olsen et al (not this editorial) as documenting an upward trend in mesothelioma cases in home renovators
  • The authors stated that neither James Hardie nor CSR had ever taken steps to systematically warn people who have asbestos products in their homes
  • The authors stated, citing WHO/IARC sources, that no threshold for asbestos causation of mesothelioma has been demonstrated
  • The authors stated that the national mesothelioma register had incomplete coverage from 2001 onwards, which had prevented statistical confirmation of the trend until then
  • Competing interest declared: one author (John Gordon), as independent counsel, has appeared for plaintiffs in claims for damages for asbestos-related disease
• The authors' conclusion: The authors contended that the manufacturers have a legal duty of care to people who have asbestos products in their homes

Topics

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

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Asbestos-Cement, Mesothelioma, Duty of Care, Causation, Plaintiff.

Related studies

• Increasing incidence of malignant mesothelioma after exposure to asbestos during home maintenance and renovation — N.J. Olsen, P.J. Franklin, et al. (2011)
• Asbestos exposure during home renovation in New South Wales — E.K. Park, D.H. Yates, et al. (2013)
• Asbestos exposure during home renovation in New South Wales — R.A. Lemen, A.L. Frank, et al. (2014)
• Asbestos exposure during home renovation in New South Wales — A.R. Johnson, D.H. Yates (2014)
• The third wave of asbestos disease: exposure to asbestos in place. Public health control. Introduction — P.J. Landrigan (1991)
• The Third Wave of Asbestos Disease: Exposure to Asbestos in Place--Public Health Control. Conference. New York, New York, June 7-9, 1990 — (1991)

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