Pleural mesothelioma and household asbestos exposure

Our plain-English summary of Pleural mesothelioma and household asbestos exposure, by J. Schneider, K. Straif, H.J. Woitowitz (Reviews on Environmental Health, 1996).

The study

• Authors: J. Schneider, K. Straif, H.J. Woitowitz
• Journal: Reviews on Environmental Health
• Published: 1996;11(1-2):65-70
• Type of article: Review
• Cited by: 24 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

This article discusses the development of asbestos-induced malignant mesotheliomas after non-occupational environmental exposure to asbestos through contact with occupationally exposed household members. In our policlinic, we have seen six fatal pleural mesothelioma cases (five wives and one son of asbestos-industry workers) with no history of occupational asbestos exposure. In five women, a causal relation was established between the fatal disease and inhalation of asbestos fibers while cleaning the contaminated work-clothes and shoes of their husbands at home. The son had also been exposed to asbestos throughout his childhood during daily visits with his father at the workplace.

In plain English

This article, from an occupational medicine clinic at the University of Giessen, Germany, described six people who died of pleural mesothelioma between 1986 and 1994 without ever having worked with asbestos: five wives and one son of asbestos-industry workers. In every case the diagnosis was confirmed by tissue examination from a biopsy or autopsy. The husbands made asbestos mats, textiles or cardboard, or worked as insulators, roofers or turbine-revision workers. Two of the husbands had already developed asbestosis. The husbands brought contaminated work clothes and shoes home, and the wives brushed the clothes almost daily and hand-washed them once or twice a week. As a child, the son visited his father's workplace daily. Household exposure lasted 7 to 23 years. The methods section gave the time from first exposure to disease as 17 to 38 years. No fiber measurements from the homes were available. The authors judged that the five women's disease was caused by this household exposure. They concluded that mesotheliomas caused only by household exposure are a problem in Germany now and will continue to appear.

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 of six patients seen at the authors' clinic, followed by a discussion of earlier published reports and studies on household asbestos exposure
• Who was studied: Five women (wives of asbestos-industry workers) and one young man (son of one of the patients) with no occupational asbestos exposure, seen at the Institute and Policlinic for Occupational and Social Medicine, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany. All died of asbestos-induced mesothelioma between 1986 and 1994. The text gives their ages as 42 to 68 years.
• Exposure: Household exposure from contaminated work clothes or shoes that the husbands brought home. The wives brushed the clothes almost daily and hand-washed them once or twice a week. The husbands worked between 1950 and 1984 in companies making asbestos mats, asbestos textiles and asbestos cardboard, or as insulators, roofers or turbine-revision workers. The son was exposed throughout his childhood during daily visits to his father's workplace. The article does not state fiber types for these cases.
• Main results:
  • In all six patients the diagnosis was confirmed by histology on specimens from clinical biopsy or autopsy.
  • Detailed job histories showed that neither the women nor the son had ever worked in an asbestos factory.
  • The contaminated clothes were taken home for cleaning, where the wives brushed them almost daily and hand-washed them once or twice a week.
  • Household exposure in the six patients lasted between 7 and 23 years.
  • The methods reported the latency period (time from start of household exposure to disease) as 17 to 38 years.
  • The husbands of two patients (G.K. and G.J.) had already developed pulmonary asbestosis.
  • The husbands' employers manufactured asbestos mats, asbestos textiles and asbestos cardboard. Other husbands worked as insulators, roofers or turbine-revision workers.
  • In the authors' assessment, a causal relation was established in the five women between their fatal disease and inhaling asbestos fibers while cleaning their husbands' contaminated work clothes and shoes at home.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that mesotheliomas caused exclusively by household asbestos exposure are a problem in Germany now and will continue to appear in the future. They also concluded that a mesothelioma patient who reports no occupational exposure should prompt a detailed exposure history and suspicion of household exposure.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • No asbestos fiber measurements were available from the patients' homes.
  • The authors stated that a valid estimate of how many household members in Germany are at risk cannot be given.

Topics

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

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Pleural Mesothelioma, Asbestos Exposure, Malignant Mesothelioma, Environmental Exposure.

Related studies

• Mesothelioma in household members of asbestos-exposed workers: 32 United States cases since 1990 — A. Miller (2005)
• Mineral fiber content of lung tissue in patients with environmental exposures: household contacts vs. building occupants — V.L. Roggli, W.E. Longo (1991)
• Malignant pleural mesothelioma after household exposure to asbestos — A.V. Patel, P.N. Bogner, et al. (2008)
• Malignant mesothelioma: clustering in a family producing asbestos cement in their home — K.E. Otte, T.I. Sigsgaard, et al. (1990)
• Familial mesothelioma in first degree relatives — A.M. Kalogeraki, D.J. Tamiolakis, et al. (2013)
• Asbestos-related radiographic findings among household contacts of workers exposed to Libby vermiculite: impact of workers' personal hygiene practices — T.J. Hilbert, A. Franzblau, et al. (2013)

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