Re: "Changing attitudes and opinions regarding asbestos and cancer 1934-1965"

Our plain-English summary of Re: "Changing attitudes and opinions regarding asbestos and cancer 1934-1965", by J. Keane (American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 1992).

The study

• Author: J. Keane
• Journal: American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Published: 1992;22(3):429-33
• Type of article: Historical article
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This is a commentary, not an original research study. Its author, the administrator of an insulators' union health program, was responding to Dr. Philip Enterline's 1991 review of how scientists' opinions on asbestos and cancer changed between 1934 and 1965. The author, a former Chicago asbestos insulator, argued that workers were never told of the scientists' discussions and had little or no warning. The author said that on the author's own jobs no precautions were recommended and no masks were issued. To show the consequences, the author reported death figures, credited to Dr. I.J. Selikoff, Dr. E.C. Hammond and H. Seidman, for the 806 members of Chicago Local 17 of the insulators' union on January 1, 1967. Of these men, 290 died between 1967 and 1987. Of those deaths, 137 were from cancer, which the author described as six times as many as expected. Lung cancer accounted for 24% of deaths and mesothelioma for 8%, and 21 men died of asbestosis. Another 83 men died between 1987 and October 1991. The author concluded that using uncertainty to delay precautions or keep workers uninformed means failing to prevent cancer.

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: Commentary responding to a published review (Enterline 1991), including the author's personal account and mortality figures for one union local supplied by other researchers
• Who was studied: 806 members of Local 17 (Chicago) of the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Asbestos Workers on January 1, 1967. According to the author, 92% (741) began work during the 1935 to 1965 period covered by Enterline's review. Deaths were followed from January 1, 1967 to January 1, 1987, with later deaths among 516 survivors reported to October 1, 1991.
• Exposure: Insulation work in powerhouses, refineries, the Joliet Arsenal, chemical plants, steel mills and commercial buildings, using asbestos cement, pipe, canvas, tape, blocks and waterproofing material. No fiber types or measured doses were given. The author said no dust counts were ever seen on the author's jobs.
• Main results:
  • Of the 806 Local 17 members, 290 died between 1967 and 1987.
  • Of the deaths in this group, 137 (47%) were from cancer, described as six times as many as expected.
  • Expected deaths were based on U.S. white male death rates for 1967 to 1986.
  • The cancer excess was mainly lung cancer (24% of deaths) and mesothelioma (8% of deaths).
  • Two-thirds of the cancer deaths in this group occurred in men under age 65.
  • 21 members died of asbestosis between 1967 and 1987.
  • Another 83 men of the 1967 group died between January 1, 1987 and October 1, 1991.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that to the extent uncertainty is used to prevent precautions or to keep workers from knowing about scientific discussions, cancer will not be prevented.

Topics

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

Related studies

• Re: "Changing opinions and attitudes regarding asbestos and cancer 1934-1965" — G. Berry (1992)
• Re: "Changing attitudes and opinions regarding asbestos and cancer 1934-1965" — R. Ehrlich, J. Myers (1992)
• Re: "Changing attitudes and opinions: asbestos and cancer 1934-1965" — G.W. Schepers (1992)
• Changing attitudes and opinions regarding asbestos and cancer 1934-1965 — P.E. Enterline (1991)
• Re: "Changing attitudes and opinions regarding asbestos and cancer 1934-1965" — J.E. Craighead (1992)
• How are we going to change our attitudes and opinions regarding asbestos and cancer in the next 20 years? — J. Bignon (1992)

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