Non-occupational exposure to asbestos and malignant mesothelioma

Our plain-English summary of Non-occupational exposure to asbestos and malignant mesothelioma, by S.F. McCullagh (Lancet, 1978).

The study

• Author: S.F. McCullagh
• Journal: Lancet
• Published: 1978;2(8088):521-2
• Type of article: Letter
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M nos. 002136, 002164).

In plain English

This was a letter to the editor, not a research study, and it reported no new data. The author, who signed as Chief Medical Officer of James Hardie and Co. Ltd in New South Wales, Australia, criticised an earlier case-control study by Vianna and Polan on non-occupational asbestos exposure and malignant mesothelioma. That study had suggested that some patients developed mesothelioma after laundering the asbestos-contaminated work clothing of husbands or fathers. The author argued that there was no accepted definition of asbestos exposure. The source Vianna and Polan relied on, Hamilton and Hardy, was described as only an incomplete list of asbestos uses. The author questioned whether some people counted as exposed had in fact been exposed, such as textile workers and a husband who was a shoemaker. The author accepted that exposure, albeit minimal, was nearly certain for three husbands who were brake-lining workers. The author also suggested the field investigators may not have been blinded. A P value of 0.006 was called meaningless if it related to a single case-control pair. A reply from Vianna and Polan followed the letter and is not summarized here.

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 commenting on a previously published case-control study by Vianna and Polan; no original data
• Who was studied: No people were studied by the author. The letter discusses the patients and matched controls in Vianna and Polan's study. The author signed as Chief Medical Officer of James Hardie and Co. Ltd, Camellia, New South Wales, Australia.
• Exposure: Occupational asbestos exposure as defined in Vianna and Polan's study, and household exposure from laundering the asbestos-contaminated work clothing of husbands and/or fathers
• Main results:
  • The author argued that Hamilton and Hardy, the source used by Vianna and Polan to define asbestos-related occupations, gave no definition of asbestos exposure, only an incomplete list of asbestos uses
  • The author questioned how four patients described as textile workers were exposed to asbestos, since the study did not say they were asbestos textile workers
  • Among the husbands, the author considered exposure nearly certain, though minimal, for three brake-lining workers, and considered it almost equally certain that a husband who was a shoemaker was not exposed
  • The author suggested that the field investigators were apparently not blinded and presumably knew whether each subject was a case or a control
  • The author argued that a P value of 0.006 (printed in the scan as "P=0006"; the following reply prints it as "0-006") was meaningless if it related to a difference between a single case-control pair
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that understanding of the epidemiology of mesothelioma would be helped by an accepted definition of asbestos exposure, and described the study's data as statistically overworked

Topics

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

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Non-Occupational Exposure, Malignant Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• Non-occupational exposure to asbestos — S.F. McCullagh (1978)
• 8-Hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine as a marker of oxidative DNA damage related to occupational and environmental exposures — A. Pilger, H.W. Rüdiger (2006)
• Mesothelioma: cases associated with non-occupational and low dose exposures — G. Hillerdal (1999)
• Occupational differences in rates of lung cancer — H.R. Menck, B.E. Henderson (1976)
• Non-occupational exposure to asbestos and malignant mesothelioma in females — N.J. Vianna, A.K. Polan (1978)
• The role of oxygen free radicals in occupational and environmental lung diseases — V. Vallyathan, X. Shi (1997)

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