Reply to letter by Nolan and colleagues--re: the carcinogenicity of New York state talc dusts in humans

Our plain-English summary of Reply to letter by Nolan and colleagues--re: the carcinogenicity of New York state talc dusts in humans, by M. Finkelstein (American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 2013).

The study

• Author: M. Finkelstein
• Journal: American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Published: 2013;56(9):1119-24
• Type of article: Letter, Comment
• Cited by: 3 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This is a letter to the editor, not a new study. The author replied to a letter by Nolan and colleagues that criticized the author's earlier commentary on malignant mesothelioma among talc miners and millers in New York State. The author argued that the Honda et al. cohort study's follow-up, which ended in 1989, was too short to judge mesothelioma risk, and stated that at least five more cases had been diagnosed since then. The author also argued that tremolite and anthophyllite fibers found in workers' lungs by Hull et al. came from their shared workplace. The letter's only new data were the author's calculations for 46 anthophyllite fibers in one sample of New York industrial talc: mean width 0.39 (range 0.15 to 0.9) and mean length 11.7 (range 4 to 43), with units garbled in the scanned text, and mean aspect ratio 39. The author concluded that animal and human studies were consistent with New York State talc being carcinogenic, and called for the cohort follow-up to be updated.

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 (author's reply to a critical letter); contains argument and one small fiber-size calculation, not a new study
• Who was studied: No new study population. The letter discusses New York State (Gouverneur area) talc miners and millers studied by others (the Honda et al. cohort and the Hull et al. lung-fiber study). It also discusses one sample (M52536) of Mouldene Talc, an industrial talc from New York State.
• Exposure: New York State industrial (tremolitic) talc, and the anthophyllite and tremolite fibers it contains
• Main results:
  • In the 46 anthophyllite fibers from Mouldene Talc sample M52536, the author calculated a mean width of 0.39 (range 0.15 to 0.9), a mean length of 11.7 (range 4 to 43) and a mean aspect ratio of 39 (range 6 to 300). Units are printed as 'mm' in the scanned text.
  • In the author's opinion, the sizes of anthophyllite fibers in the lung tissue reported by Hull et al. appeared reasonably similar to those in the industrial talc sample.
  • The author argued that the Honda et al. follow-up, which ended in 1989, was too short for conclusions about mesothelioma, and stated that at least five more mesothelioma cases had been diagnosed since it ended.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that experimental animal and human epidemiology studies are consistent with New York State talc being carcinogenic. The author also urged that the cohort follow-up be updated.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author did not have the full cohort demographics for the earlier rate-ratio estimate, and stated that a full calculation would be desirable.
  • Without access to the Hull et al. data, the author could not compute geometric mean fiber sizes for a direct comparison with the talc sample.
  • The author stated that additional mesothelioma cases in the cohort may have gone unidentified.

Topics

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

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Talc.

Related studies

• Letter to the editor on commentary: malignant mesothelioma incidence among talc miners and millers in New York state by M M Finkelstein — R.P. Nolan, J.F. Gamble, et al. (2013)
• Malignant mesothelioma incidence among talc miners and millers in New York State — M.M. Finkelstein (2012)
• Mortality among talc miners and millers in New York State — M. Kleinfeld, J. Messite, et al. (1967)
• Exposure to asbestiform minerals and radiographic chest abnormalities in a talc mining region of upstate New York — E.F. Fitzgerald, A.D. Stark, et al. (1991)
• Pneumoconiosis and malignant mesothelioma in a family operated metal casting business that used industrial talc from New York state — M.M. Finkelstein (2013)
• The dust hazard in tremolite talc mining — L. Greenburg (1947)

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