The hazard of asbestos

Our plain-English summary of The hazard of asbestos (The Medical Journal of Australia, 1976).

The study

• Journal: The Medical Journal of Australia
• Published: 1976;2(16):588-90
• Type of article: Editorial
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 002288).

In plain English

This was an unsigned editorial comment in the Medical Journal of Australia, not an original study. It discussed a paper by R. Barnes in the same issue on the hazards of asbestos spraying, and two 1976 studies. It described J. E. H. Milne's retrospective survey of 32 mesothelioma cases (29 pleural, three peritoneal) diagnosed in Victoria since 1962. Of these, 14 had "certain" work exposure to asbestos, five "probable", seven "possible", and five had no history of any possible exposure. It described K. P. S. Lumley's study of Plymouth cancer registrations from 1960 to 1969. That study found a significant excess of pleural tumours in dockyard workers: 22 pleural mesotheliomas and one pleural endothelioma, against three pleural mesotheliomas in other Plymouth males. Intervals from first exposure ranged from 23 to 69 years. The editorial noted that most writers link crocidolite most clearly with mesothelioma, and that Milne suggested the evidence against chrysotile may have little substance. The authors concluded that the case against asbestos was far from complete, but that adequate safety precautions should be observed. They also wrote that there was much to be said for a total ban on crocidolite.

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: Unsigned editorial comment discussing other published papers (not original research)
• Who was studied: No study population of its own. It discusses Milne's series of 32 mesothelioma cases diagnosed in Victoria since 1962, Lumley's Plymouth cancer registrations (1960 to 1969) comparing dockyard workers with other Plymouth men, and Barnes's paper on asbestos spraying.
• Exposure: Asbestos in general, including spraying for insulation and fire-proofing, demolition dust, and dockyard ship refitting. Named fiber types are amosite, chrysotile, fibrous anthophyllite and crocidolite.
• Main results:
  • In Milne's Victorian series, as described by the editorial, 14 cases had "certain" occupational asbestos exposure, five "probable" and seven "possible".
  • In Milne's series, five cases had no history of any possible exposure, including two of the three peritoneal mesotheliomas.
  • In Lumley's Plymouth study, the excess of pleural tumours in dockyard workers was due to 22 pleural mesotheliomas and one pleural endothelioma, compared with three pleural mesotheliomas in other Plymouth males.
  • In Lumley's series, the intervals between first asbestos exposure and registration of a pleural tumour were 23 to 69 years.
  • Milne's series included five cases with exposure of not more than a year, in which mesotheliomas appeared 25 or more years later.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the case against asbestos was far from complete, but that adequate safety precautions should meanwhile be observed. They wrote that there was much to be said for a total ban on crocidolite, following the Royal Naval Dockyards.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors stated that the five cases in Milne's series with no exposure history were too few to have much statistical meaning.
  • The authors stated that important areas of uncertainty remained about asbestos exposure.

Topics

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

Related studies

• Asbestos spraying, an occupational and environmental hazard — R. Barnes (1976)
• Quantitative risk assessment of environmental hazards — S.L. Brown (1985)
• Sociodemographic predictors of residents worry about contaminated sites — E. McIntyre, J. Prior, et al. (2018)
• Children's health in Latin America: the influence of environmental exposures — A. Laborde, F. Tomasina, et al. (2015)
• Epidemiology of environmental and occupational cancer — P. Boffetta (2004)
• Pleural mesothelioma and occupational and non-occupational asbestos exposure: a case-control study with quantitative risk assessment — D. Ferrante, D. Mirabelli, et al. (2016)

Browse more research in The Medical Journal of Australia, or return to medical research.