Silicosis and asbestosis: diagnosis, prevention and treatment

Our plain-English summary of Silicosis and asbestosis: diagnosis, prevention and treatment, by O.A. Sander (American Journal of Surgery, 1955).

The study

• Author: O.A. Sander
• Journal: American Journal of Surgery
• Published: 1955;90(1):115-9
• 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 no. 001875).

In plain English

This article was a narrative overview, not a research study. The author described how silicosis and asbestosis were diagnosed, prevented and treated, drawing on the author's own clinical experience, and described no study methods. For asbestosis, the author wrote that diagnosis needed the chest x-ray pattern, a history of adequate asbestos exposure, and physical and laboratory findings. Exposures of more than fifteen years were usually needed before x-ray changes appeared, except at extremely high dust levels. The author reported that numerous workers at an asbestos textile plant who were diagnosed with first- and second-stage asbestosis in 1943 had not visibly progressed by 1953. They kept working under markedly improved dust control. No count was given. The author stated that effective therapy for disabling asbestosis had not been demonstrated. American experience had not shown more lung cancer in recognized asbestosis cases than in the general population, although British experience suggested a possible causal relationship. The author concluded that both diseases were preventable.

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: Narrative review and clinical commentary. No study methods are described. Its only original observations come from the author's clinical experience and are given without counts.
• Who was studied: No defined study population. The article discusses workers exposed to silica dust and to asbestos dust in general, and mentions workers at an unnamed asbestos textile plant from the author's experience (number not given).
• Exposure: Inhaled asbestos fibers, described as hydrated magnesium silicate with no free crystalline silica. No specific fiber type is named. Free crystalline silica dust is discussed separately for silicosis.
• Main results:
  • In the author's experience, numerous asbestosis cases at an asbestos textile plant diagnosed as first and second stage in 1943 had not visibly progressed by 1953. The workers had continued their jobs under markedly improved dust control. No number of cases was given.
  • The author stated that diagnosis of asbestosis must be based on the x-ray pattern, an adequate history of exposure, and physical and laboratory findings.
  • The author stated that exposures of more than fifteen years were usually necessary before x-ray evidence of asbestosis appeared, except where dust concentrations were extremely high.
  • The author stated that effective therapy for disabling asbestosis had not been demonstrated.
  • The author wrote that recognized American cases of asbestosis had not shown more lung cancer than the general population, while noting that British experience suggested there may be a causal relationship. This is the author's summary of others' experience, not a finding of this article.
  • The author wrote that American experience had not shown an increased incidence of tuberculosis with asbestosis, unlike silicosis.
  • The author argued that if laboratory evidence that long fibers are the primary cause is valid, permissible asbestos dust counts were entirely incorrect. Those counts were based on fibers less than 10 microns in length.
  • For silicosis, the author stated that in the author's experience less than 10 per cent of cases ever became disabling enough to require therapy.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that silicosis and asbestosis are preventable diseases. In the author's view, new cases seen on x-ray and disabled workers had become fewer, and a diagnosis of either disease was compatible with good health.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author stated that whether minimal x-ray changes are more disabling with asbestosis than with silicosis remained to be demonstrated.
  • The author stated that more detailed laboratory studies were needed to set permissible asbestos fiber concentrations. Until then, only rough estimates of safe limits were available.

Topics

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

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

Related studies

• Mixed pneumoconiosis: silicosis, asbestosis, talcosis, and berylliosis — G.J. Mark, C.B. Monroe, et al. (1979)
• Silicosis, asbestosis, and cancer of the lung — W.C. Hueper (1955)
• Mechanisms in the pathogenesis of asbestosis and silicosis — B.T. Mossman, A. Churg (1998)
• Asbestosis and silicosis — G.R. Wagner (1997)
• Current concepts about the pathogenesis of silicosis and asbestosis — R.D. deShazo (1982)
• Serum oncoproteins and growth factors in asbestosis and silicosis patients — P.W. Brandt-Rauf, S. Smith, et al. (1992)

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