Re: "Excess mortality from stomach cancer, lung cancer, and asbestosis and/or mesothelioma in crocidolite mining districts in South Africa"

Our plain-English summary of Re: "Excess mortality from stomach cancer, lung cancer, and asbestosis and/or mesothelioma in crocidolite mining districts in South Africa", by H.P. Hart (American Journal of Epidemiology, 1987).

The study

• Author: H.P. Hart
• Journal: American Journal of Epidemiology
• Published: 1987;125(3):542-3
• Type of article: Letter
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 000970).

In plain English

This is a letter to the editor, not a research study. The author, writing for the South African Asbestos Producers Advisory Committee, criticized a 1986 article by Botha, Irwig and Strebel on deaths in crocidolite mining districts in South Africa. The author stated that among white and colored women, most people had only environmental exposure, and that the original article did not make this clear. The author noted that, as the original authors stressed, asbestosis and/or mesothelioma were combined under one code, ICD-8-467, until 1977. The author stated that not a single case of asbestosis was known to have come from environmental exposure. The author noted that the study relied entirely on death certificates, and that in rural Northern Cape most death certificates for coloreds were filled in by police rather than medical staff. Citing the South African Mesothelioma Register, the author reported 1,228 cases since 1956 as of October 1983. Of these, 510 had no known connection with asbestos. By March 1985 there were 1,459 cases, with 639 unknown and/or spontaneous. The author suggested some of these may be spontaneous cases.

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 published study
• Who was studied: No population was studied. The letter comments on Botha, Irwig and Strebel's 1986 study of mortality in crocidolite mining districts in South Africa.
• Exposure: South African crocidolite, from mining and milling or from environmental contamination, as discussed in the original article
• Main results:
  • The author stated that most white and colored women in the original study had only environmental exposure, and that the original article's remarks did not make this clear.
  • The author noted that, as the original authors stressed, asbestosis and/or mesothelioma were combined under ICD-8-467 until 1977.
  • The author stated that no case of asbestosis is known to have come from environmental exposure.
  • The author pointed out that the original study relied entirely on death certificates.
  • The author stated that in rural Northern Cape, most death certificates for coloreds were completed by police rather than medical personnel.
  • South African Mesothelioma Register, October 1983: 1,228 cases since 1956, of which 510 had no known connection with asbestos.
  • South African Mesothelioma Register, March 1985: 1,459 cases in total, of which 639 were unknown and/or spontaneous. The author described this as more than 50 per cent of the increase.
• The authors' conclusion: The author gave no overall conclusion but suggested that some register cases with no known asbestos connection may be spontaneous cases.

Topics

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

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Stomach Cancer, Lung Cancer, Mesothelioma, Crocidolite.

Related studies

• Excess mortality from stomach cancer, lung cancer, and asbestosis and/or mesothelioma in crocidolite mining districts in South Africa — J.L. Botha, L.M. Irwig, et al. (1986)
• Risk of asbestosis in crocidolite and amosite mines in South Africa — L.M. Irwig, R.S. du Toit, et al. (1979)
• Health effects of amosite mining and milling in South Africa — J. Murray, G. Nelson (2008)
• Risk of asbestosis in crocidolite and amosite mines in South Africa: an erratum — L.M. Irwig, R.S. du Toit, et al. (1984)
• The mortality of amphibole miners in South Africa, 1946-80 — G.K. Sluis-Cremer, F.D. Liddell, et al. (1992)
• Exposure to chrysotile mining dust and digestive cancer mortality in a Chinese miner/miller cohort — S. Lin, X. Wang, et al. (2014)

Browse more research in American Journal of Epidemiology, or return to medical research.