Where there is asbestos, there is mesothelioma: filling in the data blanks

Our plain-English summary of Where there is asbestos, there is mesothelioma: filling in the data blanks, by R.C. Haynes (Environmental Health Perspectives, 2011).

The study

• Author: R.C. Haynes
• Journal: Environmental Health Perspectives
• Published: 2011;119(4):A177
• Type of article: Comment, News
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

In plain English

This item is a short news summary, written by a science writer for Environmental Health Perspectives, of a study by Park and colleagues in the same issue. It is not the original research. According to the news item, the study's authors compared cumulative asbestos use with mesothelioma cases reported to the World Health Organization. They related reported mesothelioma cases during 1994–2008 to asbestos use during 1920–1970 in countries with both kinds of data. They then used that relationship to estimate unreported cases in countries that reported asbestos use but not mesothelioma. Asbestos use in 89 countries totaled more than 65 million metric tons during 1920–1970. In the 56 countries also reporting mesothelioma data, there were more than 174,000 estimated cases and 92,000 reported deaths during 1994–2008. For the 33 countries not reporting mesothelioma, the authors estimated an additional 39,000 cases over the same period. The authors called the estimate conservative and said many countries should expect a higher disease burden. The news item noted the study did not account for the rise in asbestos use since 1970. The authors argued for a complete asbestos ban in all countries.

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: News summary (EHP Science Selections) of an ecological study by Park et al. that compared national asbestos use with reported mesothelioma to estimate unreported cases
• Who was studied: Countries with asbestos-use data (89 countries), of which 56 also reported mesothelioma data to the World Health Organization and 33 did not; mesothelioma cases during 1994–2008
• Exposure: National cumulative asbestos use during 1920–1970 (no fiber types specified), compared with the 15-year cumulative number of reported mesothelioma cases during 1994–2008
• Main results:
  • Cumulative asbestos use in 89 countries totaled more than 65 million metric tons during 1920–1970
  • In the 56 countries also reporting mesothelioma data, there were more than 174,000 estimated cases and 92,000 reported deaths during 1994–2008
  • For the 33 countries not reporting mesothelioma, the authors estimated an additional 39,000 cases during the same 15-year period
  • Worldwide, the researchers predicted at least one unreported case for every four to five known cases
• The authors' conclusion: The authors said their estimate is conservative and that many countries should anticipate a higher disease burden because asbestos use has quintupled since 1970. They argued that all countries should move toward a complete ban on asbestos.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors described their estimate as conservative
  • The news item states that the study does not account for the increase in asbestos use over the 40 years since 1970

Topics

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

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

Related studies

• Asbestos in New York City public school buildings--public policy: is there a scientific basis? — R. Wilson, A.M. Langer, et al. (1994)
• Global magnitude of reported and unreported mesothelioma — E.K. Park, K. Takahashi, et al. (2011)
• Airborne asbestos in buildings — R.J. Lee, D.R. Van Orden (2008)
• Airborne asbestos levels in school buildings in Italy — A. Campopiano, S. Casciardi, et al. (2004)
• Asbestos abatement of pipe and floor tile/mastic and comparison of critical plastic barrier controls — J.H. Lange (2004)
• Firefighters and cancer: where are we and where to now? — L. Fritschi, D.C. Glass (2014)

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