Mesothelioma: has patient had contact with even small amount of asbestos?

Our plain-English summary of Mesothelioma: has patient had contact with even small amount of asbestos?, by K. Garrahan (JAMA, 1987).

The study

• Author: K. Garrahan
• Journal: JAMA
• Published: 1987;257(12):1569-70
• Type of article: News
• Cited by: 4 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 000967).

In plain English

This news feature from JAMA's Medical News & Perspectives section, by a journalism fellow, is not a research study and reported no original data. The author described mesothelioma being recorded in people who had worked with materials containing even small quantities of asbestos, such as construction tradesmen, not only in workers handling asbestos directly. Robert Spirtas of the National Cancer Institute described two 1950s trends: more material used, and more people exposed with less intensity. Citing another publication, the article noted that no threshold level had been defined for asbestos-induced mesothelioma. Irving Selikoff suggested mesothelioma incidence would peak around 1990, assuming asbestos exposure would stop by 1980. The article added that, with asbestos still in use, mesothelioma deaths may be underestimated. Hans Weill said mesothelioma rates in men were still going up. The article cited 1985 US asbestos consumption of 162 000 metric tons. The author concluded that emphasis must be placed on screening, testing and education of workers. Charts credited to Selikoff projected excess lung cancer deaths due to asbestos and mesothelioma deaths, 1977 to 2017. Their scanned numbers cannot be reliably matched to years or groups.

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: News feature (Medical News & Perspectives), not a research study; reports the views of researchers and cites other publications
• Who was studied: No study population. The article discusses construction and other trades workers who worked around asbestos, in the United States
• Exposure: Lower-intensity exposure to asbestos in materials used in construction and other trades; no fiber types are specified
• Main results:
  • Robert Spirtas (National Cancer Institute) described two trends beginning in the 1950s in the construction industry: more asbestos material was used, and more people were exposed with less intensity
  • Citing another publication, the article stated that no threshold level had been defined for asbestos-induced mesothelioma
  • Irving Selikoff suggested that the incidence of mesothelioma would reach its peak around 1990 and then gradually decline
  • Selikoff's estimate was based on the idea that exposure to asbestos would stop by 1980
  • The article stated that because asbestos was still being used, the number of deaths from mesothelioma may be underestimated
  • According to Hans Weill, rates of mesothelioma in men were still going up and were expected to continue to do so
  • Citing the Bureau of Mines, the article gave 1985 US asbestos consumption as 162 000 metric tons, down from the 1973 high
  • The article stated that OSHA had lowered the allowable workplace exposure from less than 2 fibers per cc of air to a value printed as less than .01 fibers per cc of air
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that because asbestos exposure is widespread and risk levels are still undetermined, emphasis must be placed on screening, testing and education of workers

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.

Related studies

• Estimation of the amount of asbestos-cement roofing in Poland — E. Wilk, M. Krówczyńska, et al. (2017)
• Type and amount of asbestos in floor tile and mastic — J.H. Lange (2006)
• Mesothelioma among employees with likely contact with in-place asbestos-containing building materials — H.A. Anderson, L.P. Hanrahan, et al. (1991)
• Australia's Ongoing Legacy of Asbestos: Significant Challenges Remain Even after the Complete Banning of Asbestos Almost Fifteen Years Ago — M. Soeberg, D.A. Vallance, et al. (2018)
• Mesothelioma continues to increase even 40 years after exposure - Evidence from long-term epidemiological observation — B. Świątkowska, N. Szeszenia-Dąbrowska (2017)
• Amount of Epithelioid Differentiation Is a Predictor of Survival in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma — W.T. Vigneswaran, D.Y. Kircheva, et al. (2017)

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