The Rochdale asbestos cancer studies and the politics of epidemiology: what you see depends on where you sit

Our plain-English summary of The Rochdale asbestos cancer studies and the politics of epidemiology: what you see depends on where you sit, by G. Tweedale (International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 2007).

The study

• Author: G. Tweedale
• Journal: International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health
• Published: 2007;13(1):70-9
• Type of article: Historical article
• Cited by: 7 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

The history of the exploitation of epidemiology by the U.K. asbestos industry and the subsequent obscuring of the disastrous results of exposures is presented, exploring in particular the roles of Sir Richard Doll and his colleagues. Epidemiology, often regarded as a neutral science, is susceptible to socio-political influences.

In plain English

This is a historical analysis, not a new medical study. The author examined how Sir Richard Doll's and later Julian Peto's studies of asbestos textile workers at T&N's Rochdale factory were used by the asbestos industry. In 1971 a company physician told Selikoff about several Rochdale mesotheliomas that were not included in the published studies. Dust levels in a 1968 paper (never above 8 f/cc) bore little relation to much higher levels in company papers later released in litigation. Doll and Peto later found an excess of lung cancers and respiratory disease in Rochdale (TBA) workers exposed after 1933, and the company got them to agree that publication required its approval. The author contrasted Doll and Peto's 1985 estimate of no more than one death a year nationally from indirect exposure in buildings with Peto's 1995 projections, which looked at exposures in a much wider context, that mesothelioma would cause 1% of all deaths for men born in the 1940s. A fourth of the deaths in that later study were from building and maintenance work. The author argued that epidemiology's apolitical exterior hid social and political values. The available text is incomplete.

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: historical analysis and commentary (not an original epidemiological study), drawing on published studies, company records released in litigation, and testimony
• Who was studied: the Rochdale studies by Doll and Peto of asbestos textile workers at T&N's factory in Rochdale (TBA); the cohort was small, with 198 men having 20 or more years' experience by 1961
• Exposure: asbestos dust exposure among asbestos textile workers at the Rochdale factory; the article also discusses exposure outside factories (insulation, building and maintenance work, buildings)
• Main results:
  • A T&N physician told Selikoff in 1971 about several mesotheliomas at Rochdale that had not been included in the published studies
  • Dust levels in the 1968 Rochdale paper (never above 8 f/cc) bore little relation to much higher levels recorded in company papers released later in litigation
  • The later Rochdale work had no reliable dust data before the 1960s, a small cohort, and unknown smoking histories of previous employees
  • Doll and Peto found an excess of lung cancers and respiratory disease in TBA workers exposed after 1933
  • The company got Doll and Peto to agree that publication required company approval
  • The 1985 HSE report by Doll and Julian Peto suggested that the risk from indirect asbestos exposure in buildings was no more than one death a year for the whole country
  • Peto's later projections (published 1995), which the author notes looked at exposures in a much wider context, were for mesothelioma to account for 1% of all deaths for men born in the 1940s
  • In Peto's later study of U.K. mesothelioma mortality, a fourth of the deaths were from building and maintenance work
  • In a 2000 deposition, Doll revealed that T&N had donated 50,000 pounds to Green College
• The authors' conclusion: The author argued that the early published Rochdale studies can look like an exercise in public relations, and that epidemiology's apolitical exterior hid social and political values

Topics

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

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

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