Mesothelioma following exposure to asbestos used in sugar refineries: report of two cases and review of the literature

Our plain-English summary of Mesothelioma following exposure to asbestos used in sugar refineries: report of two cases and review of the literature, by A. Panetta, M.L. Geminiani (Tumori, 2003).

The study

• Authors: A. Panetta, M.L. Geminiani
• Journal: Tumori
• Published: 2003;89(5):573-4
• Type of article: Case report
• Cited by: 2 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

We report two cases of pleural mesothelioma occurring simultaneously in a sugar refinery worker exposed to asbestos fibers and his wife, who used to wash his working clothes for at least 22 years. A review of the literature is also presented. While demonstrating the carcinogenic risk of asbestos used in sugar refinery plants, our data and those of the literature in no way reflect the real dimension of the risk. Further research will be necessary to assess this risk.

In plain English

This article reported two patients and briefly reviewed earlier published reports. The authors, from a medical oncology service near Bologna, Italy, described a 74-year-old man who had worked from 1960 to 1982 as a mechanic at a sugar refinery in Migliarino, in the district of Ferrara. He ran a thermohydraulic plant that was heavily coated with asbestos, and no protection was provided. A biopsy showed malignant mixed mesothelioma, and the latency period was 42 years. At the same time his wife, aged 75, was diagnosed with the same type of tumor. She had washed his work clothes, described as full of asbestos fibers, for at least 22 years. Both were receiving palliative chemotherapy. The article did not name the type of asbestos. The review mentioned seven cases among Swedish sugar refinery workers reported between 1983 and 1985, and 17 Italian cases, one of them in a worker's daughter. The authors concluded that these cases showed a mesothelioma risk from asbestos in sugar refineries, through work or family contact. They added that such case reports do not show how large the risk is.

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: Report of two cases (a worker and his wife) with a brief review of the literature
• Who was studied: Two patients treated at the authors' hospital in Bentivoglio, near Bologna, Italy: a 74-year-old man who had worked at a sugar refinery in Migliarino (district of Ferrara), and his wife, aged 75
• Exposure: The husband worked from 1960 to 1982 as a mechanic managing a sugar refinery's thermohydraulic plant, which was heavily coated with asbestos, with no protection provided. The wife was exposed through washing his work clothes, which were full of asbestos fibers, for at least 22 years. The fiber type is not stated.
• Main results:
  • Husband: chest X-ray showed left-sided pleural effusion, and CT showed bilateral calcified plaques. Thoracoscopic biopsy showed malignant mixed mesothelioma.
  • Husband: the latency period of the disease was 42 years
  • Wife: chest X-ray showed left-sided pleural effusion, and CT showed irregular pleural thickening with preaortic lymph nodes. Thoracoscopic biopsy showed the same histological pattern as her husband's.
  • Both patients were receiving palliative chemotherapy at the time of the report
  • Literature reviewed (other studies, not this one): seven mesothelioma cases among sugar refinery workers were reported in Sweden between 1983 and 1985. Seventeen Italian cases were reported, 15 of them from Emilia Romagna: 16 in occupationally exposed workers and one in a worker's daughter through family contact.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the cases demonstrate a mesothelioma risk among people exposed to asbestos in sugar refinery plants, through work or family contact. They said that the available case reports do not reflect the real size of the risk, and they called for systematic epidemiological studies of defined occupational cohorts and their families. Because of the long latency and the lack of protection until the end of the 1980s, they expected many new cases.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors stated that their cases and the published cases are only anecdotal clinical observations and do not show the real size of the risk

Topics

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

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Mesothelioma, Pleural Mesothelioma, Carcinogenic.

Related studies

• Fine biogenic silica fibres in sugar cane: a possible hazard — R.H. Newman (1986)
• Mesotheliomas following exposure to asbestos used in railroads: the Italian cases — C. Maltoni, C. Pinto, et al. (1991)
• Increased risk of malignant mesothelioma of the pleura after residential or domestic exposure to asbestos: a case-control study in Casale Monferrato, Italy — C. Magnani, P. Dalmasso, et al. (2001)
• Pleural mesothelioma and occupational and non-occupational asbestos exposure: a case-control study with quantitative risk assessment — D. Ferrante, D. Mirabelli, et al. (2016)
• Geological occurrence, mineralogical characterization, and risk assessment of potentially carcinogenic erionite in Italy — M. Giordani, M. Mattioli, et al. (2017)
• Asbestos fibers in the gallbladder of patients affected by benign biliary tract diseases — F. Grosso, L. Randi, et al. (2015)

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