The subject of continuous vigilance

Our plain-English summary of The subject of continuous vigilance, by A.M. Langer (Environmental Health Perspectives, 1974).

The study

• Author: A.M. Langer
• Journal: Environmental Health Perspectives
• Published: 1974;9:53-6
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 001275).

Abstract

Asbestos disease in the occupational setting has been documented since the beginning of this century. Modern usage of asbestos fiber has brought with it concomitant and widespread contamination of the environment. The need to control asbestos is required in the forms of legislation and surveillance, to prevent the spread of asbestos disease into the general population.

In plain English

This 1974 article was a short commentary, not a research study, and presented no new data with methods or figures. The author reviewed earlier published reports. These reports linked occupational asbestos exposure to asbestosis, lung cancer, pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma, and gastrointestinal cancer. A cited 1965 report from Great Britain linked mesothelioma to family members of asbestos workers and to residents living within half a mile of an asbestos factory. The author also listed environmental sources reported by others, including chrysotile in urban air in the United States and amosite in drinking water drawn from Lake Superior. As unpublished data without figures, the author's laboratory reported chrysotile in the Greenland polar ice cap and asbestos fiber in brake-drum dust, children's papier mache mixes, consumer repair and construction materials, and talcum products. The author noted that the workplace exposure standard was designed to prevent lung scarring, not cancer. The author also quoted a caveat that high workplace risk need not mean risk at much lower general-population levels. The author concluded that asbestos must be controlled through legislation and surveillance, with microscopists playing key roles.

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: commentary (narrative overview of earlier published reports); no original study with methods or data
• Who was studied: no study population; the article discussed published reports on asbestos workers, workers' families, people living near an asbestos factory, and the general population in the United States and Great Britain
• Exposure: asbestos in general; the article names amosite, anthophyllite, chrysotile, crocidolite and tremolite as the asbestos minerals, and discusses occupational, household, neighborhood and environmental exposure
• Main results:
  • Summarizing earlier studies (not this article's own findings): by the mid-1960s, occupational asbestos exposure had been linked to asbestosis and to elevated risk of lung cancer, pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma, and gastrointestinal cancers
  • Citing a 1965 report from Great Britain (reference 10): family members of asbestos workers and residents within half a mile of an asbestos factory, none occupationally exposed, also had a risk of mesothelioma
  • Citing earlier work (reference 15): chrysotile was identified as a common pollutant in ambient air of large US urban areas
  • Citing an EPA report (reference 16): amosite was found contaminating drinking water supplies from Lake Superior, attributed to mine waste discharge
  • Author's laboratory, unpublished data with no figures given: chrysotile found in the Greenland polar ice cap
  • Author's laboratory, unpublished data with no figures given: asbestos fiber found in brake-drum dust, children's papier mache mixes, consumer repair and construction materials, and talcum products
  • The author noted that the occupational exposure standard for asbestos was designed to prevent lung scarring, not cancer
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that asbestos must be controlled through legislation and surveillance to keep asbestos disease from spreading into the general population, and that microscopists would play key roles in this vigilance
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author quoted a caveat that high cancer risk in a heavily exposed occupational group need not mean risk for the general population exposed to much lower levels

Topics

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

Related studies

• Inorganic particles in bronchoalveolar lavage fluids from nonoccupationally exposed subjects — M. Falchi, L. Biondo, et al. (1996)
• Asbestos exposure during brake lining maintenance and repair — A.N. Rohl, A.M. Langer, et al. (1976)
• Asbestos-related diseases of the lung and other organs: their epidemiology and implications for clinical practice — M.R. Becklake (1976)
• Asbestos and lung cancer: an analysis of the epidemiological evidence on the asbestos-smoking interaction — R. Saracci (1977)
• Absence of synergism between exposure to asbestos and cigarette smoking in asbestosis — J.M. Samet, G.R. Epler, et al. (1979)
• Worker exposure to asbestos during removal of sprayed material and renovation activity in buildings containing sprayed material — N.W. Paik, R.J. Walcott, et al. (1983)

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