Talc and mesothelioma

Our plain-English summary of Talc and mesothelioma, by T.K. Ng (The Medical Journal of Australia, 1984).

The study

• Author: T.K. Ng
• Journal: The Medical Journal of Australia
• Published: 1984;140(8):452-3
• Cited by: 6 articles, 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. 001687).

Summary of the article

This leading article commented on a case report by Barnes and Rogers, published in the same issue, of pleural mesothelioma in a worker exposed to "industrial talc". The diagnosis was made by the Histopathology Panel of the Australian Mesothelioma Surveillance Programme. The only occupational exposure was 12 years of talc used as a separation agent in an artificial jewellery factory. The exposure was considered light: 500 g of talc every two months was used by 10 operators. The latency of 20 years was shorter than the 33-year average among workers compensated for mesothelioma in New South Wales. Fibre counting of lung tissue showed elevated levels of amosite. The author noted similar cases in Germany and the United States. He reviewed the mineralogy of talc, the minerals that occur with it, including tremolite, anthophyllite and rarely chrysotile, and how talc varies by source. He cited studies of cosmetic talc, including one in which fibres were found in all 20 consumer talcum powders sampled in New York from 1971 to 1975, with fewer fibre-containing samples from 1975 to 1978. He concluded that there was no evidence linking talc as a mineral with mesothelioma, that the risk from fibrous talcs depends on occupational hygiene, and that quality control of talc products is essential. Because talc has never been shown to contain amosite, he suggested that the fibres found were either not amosite or came from other exposure. The source of asbestos exposure in this case remained undetermined.

PubMed has no abstract for this study, and the article doesn't print one. We wrote this summary from the full article with the help of AI. It is not the authors' wording.

In plain English

This was a leading article (an editorial), not an original study. The author commented on a case report by Barnes and Rogers, in the same issue, of pleural mesothelioma in a person whose only reported occupational exposure was 12 years of talc used as a separation agent in an artificial jewellery factory. As the editorial described it, the exposure was considered light, the latency period was 20 years, and lung tissue showed elevated levels of amosite. The author argued that this case and similar cases from Germany and the United States tend to suggest that asbestos in the talc, not talc itself, was responsible. The author also stated that there was no evidence linking talc as a mineral to mesothelioma. Citing other researchers, the author noted that fibres were found in every one of 20 consumer talcum powders obtained in New York City from 1971 to 1975. Because talc as a material has never been shown to contain amosite, the author suggested that the lung fibres might have been tremolite or other fibres, or might have come from other exposures. The author concluded that the unexpected occupational exposure to asbestos in this case remained undetermined.

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: Editorial (leading article) commenting on a case report published in the same issue, with discussion of published literature on talc and asbestos
• Who was studied: No study population of its own. The editorial discussed one case of pleural mesothelioma reported by Barnes and Rogers in Australia, and mentioned similar cases reported in Germany and the United States.
• Exposure: In the discussed case, the only occupational exposure in the reported history was 12 years of exposure to 'industrial talc' used as a separation agent in an artificial jewellery factory. The editorial also discussed talc of varying composition, including talc containing tremolite and anthophyllite, and amosite found in lung tissue.
• Main results:
  • In the Barnes and Rogers case, the exposure was considered light: 500 g of talc every two months was used by 10 operators.
  • In the Barnes and Rogers case, the latency period was 20 years. The editorial described this as much shorter than the 33-year average in workers compensated for mesothelioma in New South Wales.
  • In the Barnes and Rogers case, fibre counting in lung tissue showed elevated levels of amosite.
  • The author's view was that the Australian case and the two overseas cases tend to suggest that asbestos in the talc, not talc itself, was responsible for the mesothelioma.
  • The author stated there was no evidence of any association between talc as a mineral and mesothelioma.
  • Citing Rohl and Langer (not this article's own data): fibres were found in every one of 20 consumer talcum powders obtained in New York City from 1971 to 1975. Ten samples contained tremolite or anthophyllite or both, and two contained chrysotile.
  • The author stated that talc as a material has never been shown to contain amosite.
  • The author proposed two possible explanations for the case. Either the fibres were not really amosite but tremolite or other fibres, or the amosite came from other occupational exposure or from non-occupational exposure.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that, although amosite is associated with mesothelioma, there is a big question about linking the elevated lung amosite in this case to the talc exposure. The author also concluded that the unexpected occupational exposure to asbestos in this case remains undetermined.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author noted that detailed information on the two overseas cases had not been made available.
  • The author stated there was practically no information on talc as a product, apart from cosmetic talc.
  • The author deliberately avoided the controversy over mineralogical versus statutory definitions of 'fibre'.

Topics

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

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Talc, Mesothelioma, Pleural Mesothelioma, Industrial Talc, Histopathology, Occupational Exposure, Latency, Amosite.

Related studies

• Ovarian cancer and talc: a case-control study — D.W. Cramer, W.R. Welch, et al. (1982)
• Lung function 22-35 years after treatment of idiopathic spontaneous pneumothorax with talc poudrage or simple drainage — P. Lange, J. Mortensen, et al. (1988)
• Mortality among talc miners and millers in New York State — M. Kleinfeld, J. Messite, et al. (1967)
• Talc and carcinoma of the ovary and cervix — W.J. Henderson, C.A. Joslin, et al. (1971)
• Talc slurry pleurodesis. Pleural fluid and histologic analysis — L. Kennedy, R.A. Harley, et al. (1995)
• Cosmetic talc and ovarian cancer — D.L. Longo, R.C. Young (1979)

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