The health of welders in naval dockyards. The risk of asbestos-related diseases occurring in welders

Our plain-English summary of The health of welders in naval dockyards. The risk of asbestos-related diseases occurring in welders, by G.H. McMillan (Journal of Occupational Medicine., 1983).

The study

• Author: G.H. McMillan
• Journal: Journal of Occupational Medicine.
• Published: 1983;25(10):727-30
• Cited by: 16 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. 000627).

Abstract

Welders employed in Her Majesty's Dockyards before the late 1960s are likely to have been exposed to asbestos dust at work. Several studies have been made to assess the risk of their developing asbestos-related pulmonary parenchymal fibrosis, pleural fibrosis and mesothelioma. Potential exposures and their possible effects are described.

In plain English

This article summarized research on asbestos-related disease among welders in British naval dockyards, mainly Devonport. It drew on surveys begun in 1966, not designed to study welders specifically. Welders were in exposure group 2, the second highest of four. In that group's random samples, asbestos-related lesions were found in 13.4% at Devonport and 13.3% at Portsmouth, and parenchymal fibrosis in 1.1% and 0.5%. Of 306 welders examined, 86 (28.1%) had pleural lesions and 13 had small irregular lung opacities. Seven welders were known to have died of mesothelioma in Plymouth. Of men with pleural lesions followed for 10 years, 9 of 99 in exposure group 2 developed small opacities of category 1/1 or more. Clinical parenchymal fibrosis was judged present in 3.0%, against 0.5% in a random sample without lesions. The author wrote that this strengthened, but did not confirm, the opinion that men with pleural lesions ran a greater risk, because the groups differed, for example in exposure duration and X-ray screening. The author concluded that mesothelioma incidence could not be estimated. Exposure was judged from job histories, not measurements.

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 report summarizing dockyard radiological surveys and a 10-year follow-up of men with pleural lesions, much of it published elsewhere by the author and colleagues; not designed to study welders specifically
• Who was studied: Workers in Her Majesty's Dockyards (Devonport, Portsmouth, Rosyth, Chatham), studied from 1966, with estimates for welders made mainly at Devonport. The groups included 10% random samples at Devonport and Portsmouth followed up in 1976 and 1977, 306 welders, and 201 men with pleural lesions in 1966 followed to 1976.
• Exposure: Crocidolite and later amosite insulation used in shipbuilding, repair and refitting until the middle to late 1960s. Welders' sources included delagging, sprayed limpet crocidolite on aircraft carrier deckheads, asbestos cloth sheeting, and asbestos-wound electrodes. Welders were placed in exposure group 2 of four.
• Main results:
  • Measurements taken in the early 1970s of dust from past work methods gave mean values of 171 fibers/ml for delagging in boiler rooms, 88 fibres/ml for engine room work, and 353 fibers/ml for sweeping and bagging debris
  • Welders were in the second highest of the four exposure groups (exposure group 2)
  • Asbestos-related lesions were present in 13.4% of exposure group 2 in the Devonport sample and 13.3% in the Portsmouth sample
  • Parenchymal fibrosis prevalence in exposure group 2 was 1.1% at Devonport and 0.5% at Portsmouth
  • Of 306 welders examined, 13 had small irregular opacities of category 1/1 or more. Seven of these had dyspnea, but none met the clinical criteria for a disability pension. Only three Devonport welders are known to have received such a pension.
  • Among welders at Portsmouth, Devonport and Chatham examined with full-size films, 86 of 306 (28.1%) had pleural lesions
  • In Plymouth, 108 mesothelioma cases were recorded up to 1978, three of them in welders. Four more welders died of mesothelioma between 1978 and 1981, for a total of seven.
  • In the follow-up of men with pleural lesions in 1966, 9 (9.1%) of 99 men in exposure group 2 had small opacities of category 1/1 or more by 1976 or at death
  • With strict clinical criteria added, 3.0% of the men with pleural lesions were considered to have clinical parenchymal fibrosis. This compared with an attack rate of 0.5% in random-sample men with no pleural or parenchymal lesions in 1966. The table gives both figures for exposure group 2.
  • The author wrote that this comparison strengthened, but did not confirm, the opinion that men with pleural lesions were at greater risk of parenchymal fibrosis than colleagues without pleural lesions
  • Type of pleural lesion, interval since first exposure, occupation, age and smoking habit did not appear to determine which men developed opacities
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that, although at least seven welders had died of pleural mesothelioma, it was not possible to estimate its incidence at present or for the future
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Exposure was assessed from occupational histories because actual exposure measurements were not available
  • Sample surveys are a poor indicator of the incidence of a rare tumor such as mesothelioma
  • Some deaths may be missed because men moved away from the area
  • Mesothelioma data comparable to Plymouth's were not available for the other yards
  • The men with pleural lesions and the comparison sample differed in ways that limited comparison between them, including the mix of exposure groups, smoking, and mean duration of exposure (about four years shorter in the larger sample)
  • The comparison sample was screened with 100-mm films, so some cases of small opacities were likely missed

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: The Navy, Welders.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Interstitial Fibrosis, Fibrosis, Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• UK Naval Dockyards asbestosis study: survey of the sample population aged 50-59 years — C.E. Rossiter, P.G. Harries (1979)
• Royal Naval dockyards asbestosis research project: nine-year follow-up study of men exposed to asbestos in Devonport Dockyard — C.E. Rossiter, J.R. Heath, et al. (1980)
• UK Naval Dockyards Asbestosis Study: radiological methods in the surveillance of workers exposed to asbestos — G. Sheers, C.E. Rossiter, et al. (1978)
• Correlation between fibre content of the lungs and disease in naval dockyard workers — J.C. Wagner, C.B. Moncrieff, et al. (1986)
• The rise and fall in incidence of malignant mesothelioma from a British Naval Dockyard, 1979-1999 — A.K. Hilliard, J.K. Lovett, et al. (2003)
• Experience with asbestos disease and its control in Great Britain's naval dockyards — P.G. Harries (1976)

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