Various aspects of asbestos exposure

Our plain-English summary of Various aspects of asbestos exposure, by W.T. Miller (Seminars in Roentgenology, 1992).

The study

• Author: W.T. Miller
• Journal: Seminars in Roentgenology
• Published: 1992;27(2):81
• Type of article: Editorial
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This one-page letter from the editor introduced a Seminars in Roentgenology issue on asbestos exposure, mainly its radiographic findings. It is an opinion piece and reports no study, patients or data. The author wrote that asbestos was first seen as a useful material and came into wide use with little evaluation of its hazards. The author wrote that some companies stayed unaware of the danger or refused to believe early studies. In the author's view, concern about asbestos in buildings is often unfounded, and leaving it in place is probably safer than removing it. The author wrote that many exposed workers died of asbestosis or asbestos-associated malignancies without knowing the cause, and some sued employers. In the author's view, others with only minimal exposure and little or no evidence of real damage also sued, and some collected large sums. The author called litigation frequently capricious and unfair and always inordinately expensive. The author proposed instead identifying truly exposed workers, having impartial medical experts assess them, and paying them from pooled company resources or federal funds.

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 (letter from the editor introducing a journal issue); no original research
• Exposure: Asbestos exposure in general; no specific fiber types, products or doses are named
• The authors' conclusion: The author argued that major efforts should be made to ensure workplace safety. In the author's view, when the hazard of an industrial material is established, exposed workers should be identified and compensated through a fairer system than litigation, with impartial medical assessment and funding from pooled company resources or the federal government.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Asbestos Exposure.

Related studies

• Theoretical approach to the hit probability of lung-cancer-sensitive epithelial cells by mineral fibers with various aspect ratios — R. Sturm (2010)
• Identifying the pulmonary hazard of high aspect ratio nanoparticles to enable their safety-by-design — K. Donaldson, F. Murphy, et al. (2011)
• Structural defects play a major role in the acute lung toxicity of multiwall carbon nanotubes: physicochemical aspects — I. Fenoglio, G. Greco, et al. (2008)
• Asbestos-related chest diseases: plain radiographic findings — W.T. Miller, W.B. Gefter, et al. (1992)
• Asbestos-dust exposures at various levels and mortality — P.E. Enterline, M.A. Kendrick (1967)
• The Pathologic Peritoneal Cancer Index (PCI) Strongly Differs From the Surgical PCI in Peritoneal Metastases Arising From Various Primary Tumors — A. Bhatt, Y. Yonemura, et al. (2020)

Browse more research in Seminars in Roentgenology, or return to medical research.