Non-occupational asbestos related chest diseases in a small Anatolian village

Our plain-English summary of Non-occupational asbestos related chest diseases in a small Anatolian village, by Y.I. Bariş, M. Artvinli, A.A. Sahin, et al (British Journal of Industrial Medicine, 1988).

The study

• Authors: Y.I. Bariş, M. Artvinli, A.A. Sahin, N. Bilir, F. Kalyoncu, P. Sebastien
• Journal: British Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Published: 1988;45(12):841-2
• Type of article: Case report
• Cited by: 11 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 000885).

Summary of the article

The authors described chest and other diseases among people from a small village in Central Anatolia, Turkey, where non-occupational pleural asbestosis and mesothelioma had been reported in other villages. Between 1984 and 1987 they collected seven patients from Caparkayi village in the Cankiri district, which had a population of 425. The village had no asbestos mine, mill or factory. Its houses were made of mudbrick and rocks, with walls plastered with a white stucco. Four women aged 26, 30, 33 and 40 had malignant pleural mesothelioma, diagnosed by pleural punch biopsy or limited thoracotomy. All four were non-smoking housewives, and three had moved to Ankara at ages 19 to 21. Chest x ray films of the parents of two of these patients showed calcified pleural plaques or calcification compatible with asbestos exposure. A 58 year old woman had asbestosis. Mineralogical examination of her lung biopsy showed many fibres identified as tremolite. A 56 year old male farmer and heavy smoker had gastric carcinoma, and a 50 year old woman had Hodgkin's disease. None of the patients had been occupationally exposed to asbestos. The authors suggested that they may have inhaled tremolite from the stucco-plastered house walls, and that childhood exposure could explain the young age of the mesothelioma patients. They concluded that four mesotheliomas in a village of 425 was unusual and that tremolite was the likely cause.

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 report described seven patients from Caparkayi, a Central Anatolian village with a population of 425, collected between 1984 and 1987. The village had no asbestos mine, mill or factory, none of the patients was occupationally exposed to asbestos, and the houses were plastered with white stucco. Four non-smoking women aged 26 to 40 had malignant pleural mesothelioma. One died six months after diagnosis. Chest x rays of parents of two of them showed changes compatible with asbestos exposure. A 58 year old woman had asbestosis, and fibres in her lung biopsy were identified as tremolite. A man who smoked heavily had gastric carcinoma, which the authors said could be coincidental. A woman had Hodgkin's disease, which they said may be related to asbestos. Citing earlier reports of tremolite in stucco from certain Central Anatolian villages, the authors suggested the patients may have inhaled tremolite from house walls. They said the patients' young ages may be explained by childhood exposure. They concluded that four mesotheliomas in a village of 425 was unusual and that the tremolite finding suggested tremolite was the cause.

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: case series (seven patients from one village)
• Who was studied: Seven patients (six women, one man, aged 26 to 58) from Caparkayi village, Cankiri district, Central Anatolia, Turkey (population 425), collected 1984 to 1987; three of the mesothelioma patients had left the village for Ankara at ages 19 to 21
• Exposure: Non-occupational (environmental) exposure. There was no asbestos industry in the village, and the houses were plastered with white stucco. The authors suggested the patients inhaled tremolite asbestos from the walls; tremolite in stucco is cited from earlier reports on certain villages, not measured in this article.
• Main results:
  • Four women (aged 26, 30, 33 and 40; all housewives and non-smokers) had malignant pleural mesothelioma; the 40 year old died six months after diagnosis
  • Case 2: chest x ray films of the patient's father and mother showed calcified pleural plaques and fibrosing pleuritis compatible with asbestos exposure
  • Case 3: the patient's father's chest x ray showed linear calcification above the right diaphragm, compatible with asbestos exposure
  • Case 5, a 58 year old non-smoking woman, was diagnosed with asbestosis; many fibres in one lung biopsy specimen were identified as tremolite by morphology, x ray microanalysis and electron diffraction
  • Case 6, a 56 year old male farmer and heavy smoker, had gastric carcinoma and died three months later
  • Case 7, a 50 year old non-smoking woman, had mixed cellular type Hodgkin's disease, which the authors said may also be related to asbestos
  • The authors said the young age of the patients may be explained by childhood exposure
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that four cases of malignant pleural mesothelioma in a village of 425 is unusual, and that the detection of tremolite fibres in the lung tissue of the patient with asbestosis suggests tremolite was the cause
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors noted the gastric carcinoma case could be coincidental

Topics

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

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Mesothelioma, Pleural Mesothelioma, Biopsy, Thoracotomy, Pleural Plaques, Asbestos Exposure, Tremolite, Carcinoma.

Related studies

• An epidemiological study in an Anatolian village environmentally exposed to tremolite asbestos — Y.I. Baris, N. Bilir, et al. (1988)
• Environmental fiber-induced pleuro-pulmonary diseases in an Anatolian village: an epidemiologic study — M. Artvinli, Y.I. Baris (1982)
• The role of environmental and occupational exposures in Turkish immigrants with fibre-related disease — P. Dumortier, A. Göcmen, et al. (2001)
• Malignant pleural mesothelioma caused by environmental exposure to asbestos or erionite in rural Turkey: CT findings in 84 patients — A.A. Sahin, L. Cöplü, et al. (1993)
• Fiber burden and patterns of asbestos-related disease in chrysotile miners and millers — A. Churg, J.L. Wright, et al. (1993)
• Asbestos-related disease associated with exposure to asbestiform tremolite — S.H. Srebro, V.L. Roggli (1994)

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