Mesothelioma in a community in the north of England

Our plain-English summary of Mesothelioma in a community in the north of England, by M. Greenberg (Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 1997).

The study

• Author: M. Greenberg
• Journal: Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• Published: 1997;54(1):67-8
• Type of article: Letter, Comment
• Read it: PubMed · Free full text

In plain English

This is a letter to the editor, not a research study. The author commented on a 1996 paper by Edwards and colleagues about mesothelioma in Calderdale, a community in the north of England, and the Acre Mill asbestos factory there. The author criticised that paper's presentation of historical facts and its analysis of data. The author noted that after Cape left, the factory was occupied by another manufacturer in a not entirely decontaminated state. The author argued that the paper's average incidence for Calderdale was diluted by the large non-exposed population. Taking the factory population on its own, the author calculated between 524 and 786 mesothelioma cases per million person-years, depending on the estimate of workforce size. The author pointed out that of 17 malignant mesothelioma cases in people described as not exposed to asbestos, eight had excessive amounts of amphibole in their lung tissue. The author also questioned reliance on lung fibre counts. In a printed reply, the original authors said a detailed analysis of tissue-proven mesotheliomas found no case of disease from factory pollution in anyone living within two to four square miles of the factory who had not worked at Acre Mill.

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: Letter to the editor (correspondence) commenting on a published article, followed by the original authors' reply
• Who was studied: No new population was studied. The letter discusses the Edwards et al. study of mesothelioma in Calderdale, north of England, covering 1966-94, including people who worked at the Acre Mill asbestos factory (stated in that study as between 2000 and 3000 people)
• Exposure: Asbestos exposure from the Acre Mill factory, which was commandeered in 1939 to produce gas mask filters; amphibole and chrysotile fibres are discussed
• Main results:
  • The author argued that the original paper's average mesothelioma incidence for Calderdale was diluted by the overwhelming non-exposed population
  • The author calculated that, for the factory population studied separately, the rate was between 524 and 786 mesothelioma cases per million person-years, depending on which extreme estimate of factory population is used
  • The author noted that, of the 17 malignant mesothelioma cases reported in the population not exposed to asbestos, eight had excessive amounts of amphibole in their lung tissues, and disputed the original authors' statement that there were no neighbourhood cases
  • The author stated that after Cape left, the factory was occupied by another manufacturer for several more years in a not entirely decontaminated state
  • The author questioned whether lung fibre counts can separate asbestos-caused from non-asbestos tumours, citing sampling and counting uncertainty and overlap between exposed and unexposed people
  • In their reply, the original authors stated that, despite Bertram Mann's claims about asbestos related disease arising from asbestos pollution from the factory, a detailed analysis of tissue-proven mesotheliomas found no such case in a person living within two to four square miles of the factory who had not been employed at Acre Mill
  • In their reply, the original authors cited other reviews concluding that amphiboles have much greater potency than chrysotile for producing mesothelioma
• The authors' conclusion: The author advised readers, given the original authors' more sanguine attitude to chrysotile, to await the forthcoming International Programme on Chemical Safety review of chrysotile

Topics

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

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

Related studies

• Mesothelioma in a community in the north of England — A.T. Edward, D. Whitaker, et al. (1996)
• Life after first-line chemotherapy in malignant pleural mesothelioma: a North-East England experience — J. Steer, G. Bough, et al. (2010)
• Work-related mortality in England and Wales, 1979-2000 — D. Coggon, E.C. Harris, et al. (2010)
• Asbestos in the workplace and the community — W.J. Smither (1974)
• Variation in number of general practitioner consultations before hospital referral for cancer: findings from the 2010 National Cancer Patient Experience Survey in England — G. Lyratzopoulos, R.D. Neal, et al. (2012)
• Malignant mesothelioma in south east England: clinicopathological experience of 272 cases — D.H. Yates, B. Corrin, et al. (1997)

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