Survey Of Some Current British And European Studies Of Occupational Tumor Problems

Our plain-English summary of Survey Of Some Current British And European Studies Of Occupational Tumor Problems, by W.E. Smith (1952).

The study

• Author: W.E. Smith
• Published: Archives Of Industrial Hygiene 5(3):242-263, March (1952)
• Type of article: Journal article
• Our copy: from Johns-Manville's own medical library, J-M no. 001911. The article is still under copyright, so we describe it here rather than post it.

In plain English

This 1952 article was a survey, not an original study. The author reported on visits to researchers in Britain and Europe and summarized their work on occupational tumors in shale oil, petroleum, asbestos and dyestuffs, and on sources of cancer statistics. In the asbestos section, the author cited a 1947 British factory report. It recorded cancer of the lungs or pleura in 31 (13.2%) of 235 asbestosis cases. The author compared this with 91 (1.32%) of 6,884 silicosis cases recorded from 1930 through 1946. The author described 17 cases of lung cancer with asbestosis examined by Dr. S. Roodhouse Gloyne. All had been exposed before 1932, and most worked at a plant handling Rhodesian and South African blue asbestos. Separately, 3 cancers were found among 8 asbestotic lungs from a plant using Canadian white asbestos. Only one such case had been reported in a man exposed only after 1932, the year exhaust ventilation was adopted. The British experts consulted agreed that a lung tumor hazard had existed in the industry but saw no evidence it continued under current conditions.

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 survey (review) of current British and European research on occupational tumors, based on the author's visits to investigators; sections on shale oil, petroleum, asbestos, dyestuffs and sources of statistical data
• Who was studied: For asbestos: British cases of asbestosis and silicosis recorded by the Chief Inspector of Factories (1924 to 1946 for asbestosis); lungs personally examined by pathologist Dr. S. Roodhouse Gloyne, including 17 with asbestosis and lung cancer; 11 lungs from workers at a Canadian white asbestos plant; 117 asbestosis cases seen by Dr. H. Wyers. The British figures refer to weaving, manufacturing or handling workers, since there is no asbestos mining in England.
• Exposure: Asbestos dust in British asbestos manufacturing. Most of the 17 Gloyne cases worked at a plant handling Rhodesian blue and South African (also blue) asbestos. At least one was exposed only to Canadian white asbestos. All 17 were exposed before the 1932 ventilation regulations.
• Main results:
  • The 1947 Chief Inspector of Factories report recorded cancer of the lungs or pleura in 31 (13.2%) of 235 cases of asbestosis recorded over 23 years (1924 through 1946).
  • Among silicosis cases recorded from 1930 through 1946, cancer of the lungs or pleura was noted in 91 (1.32%) of 6,884. The author described the incidence as 10 times greater in asbestotic lungs than in silicotic lungs.
  • In the same report, 1,037 silicotics died at an average age of 58.2 years and 160 asbestotics at an average age of 47.5 years. Average employment was 34.3 years for silicotics and 14.9 years for asbestotics. The author argued that neither difference could account for the higher cancer rate in asbestosis.
  • From Registrar General data, the author calculated that 1.36% of all deaths in England and Wales from 1943 to 1945 were reported as due to cancer of the lung, bronchus or pleura.
  • In Dr. Gloyne's pathology series, the lung cancer rate was 8.3% among 169 people without pneumoconiosis employed in the same industries, and 5.1 to 8.9% in groups with pneumoconioses other than asbestosis. The author wrote that the rate in the asbestosis group still stood out.
  • The 17 asbestosis cases with lung cancer in Dr. Gloyne's series were 10 men and 7 women. In the normal English population the ratio was said to be 4 men to every woman. Dr. Gloyne took this as evidence for an occupational factor.
  • In Dr. Gloyne's 17 cases, asbestosis was moderate or extensive in every case except one, which was mild.
  • Among 11 lungs from people employed at a plant using Canadian white asbestos (described by Dr. C. V. Harrison), 8 showed asbestosis, and all 3 cancers were among those 8.
  • In the combined 20 cases of coexistent lung cancer and asbestosis, asbestosis was extensive in 5, moderate in 13, and mild or minimal in 2. The cancers were squamous cell in 11, oat cell in 6, anaplastic in 2 and adenocarcinoma in 1. There was no correlation between cancer type and degree of asbestosis.
  • Dr. Wyers found primary lung cancer in 17 of the 117 asbestosis cases he had seen.
  • Dr. Wyers had seen only two deaths from asbestosis in people who started work after 1932, compared with 115 deaths involving asbestosis in people employed before 1932.
  • Dr. Merewether reported only one case of coexistent lung cancer and asbestosis in a person exposed only since 1932: a man employed in the industry between 1935 and 1945.
  • The 1947 factory report gave a mean exposure of 16.5 years (range 1.5 to 40 years) for asbestos workers who died of lung cancer.
  • In a discussion printed with the article, Dr. Cartier of Quebec (not the author) presented eight cases of primary lung cancer detected among 4,000 asbestos workers from 1940 to 1950. These included pleural mesotheliomas and a mediastinal lymphosarcoma. Dr. Cartier questioned whether a causal relationship could be established.
• The authors' conclusion: The author reported the consensus of Dr. Gloyne, Dr. Wyers and Dr. Merewether: a lung tumor hazard formerly existed in the British asbestos industry, but there was no evidence that it continued under the working conditions then prevailing. Whether delayed cases would appear among workers who started in the 1930s remained to be seen.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author noted that the higher lung cancer rates in Dr. Gloyne's pathology series, compared with general population and silicosis figures, probably reflected closer study.
  • The size of the group of workers who began employment in the 1930s, and who were only then reaching the age at which tumors might be expected, was not known.
  • Some of Dr. Gloyne's material was destroyed during the bombing of London.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Pleura, Silicosis, Lung Cancer, Crocidolite.

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