Document 3ebVm8xNXnnXpBEyyDjEejogD

186 ASBESTOS-DUST EXPOSURES--ENTERLINE & KENDRICK bestos textile industry at about the level as that in the other industries studied here then it might be argued that the effects of asbestos dust exposures on mortality are considerably greater than the 21% increase shown. It should be noted that this study covered at most a 16V2-year follow-up and there may be more striking health effects of exposure to asbestos dust over a longer period. Some workers had, of course, been working for a considerable period in the asbestos products industry when, they first entered the cohort. Others had only recently been employed. Many workers left the industry shortly after they entered the cohort. The duration of ex posures cannot, therefore, be defined. The question of the effects of low levels of asbestos.' dust exposure on disease is impor tant. Some effects are detectable on lung cancer mortality and on mortality from cer tain respiratory diseases even in the asbes tos building products industry, where appar ently overall exposures are minimal. It seems likely, however, that these exposures are greatly in excess of those in urban com munities and if very low-level exposures of populations to asbestos dust play any part in the pathogenesis of disease it must be very small indeed. Summary A study was conducted on the mortality expe fience up to 16x/i years of 21,755 white male l in three asbestos products industries and comparisons were made with the mortal ity e Jperience of 6,281 white males in an in dustry without asbestos dust exposures and with the mortality experience of the e US white male population. An elevated death rate for all causes^ found only among workers in the as! textile industry, an industry which has 1 ably had heavy asbestos dust exposures;: other two asbestos products industri asbestos building products and asbestos tion materials--probably had conside lower levels of asbestos-dust exposure,! here death rates for all causes were those experienced in all US white males; nearly identical to those among worked the industry without asbestos-dust sures. Increased mortality among workers in asbestos textile industry was due to deaths from cancer of the respiratory tern, cancer of the digestive system, a gory of heart disease which includes^ pulmonale, and asbestosis. Despite low mortality for all ca among workers in the asbestos buil products and asbestos friction materials dustries, these workers had slightly creased death rates for cancer of the. spiratory system and a high death rate asbestosis. It is believed that asbestos dust expos among workers in the asbestos buil products industry and the asbestos fri materials industry greatly exceeded thos modern urban communities, and that .! modest response of the workers in these dustries indicates that asbestos dust at lev. to which general populations are exp probably is of little importance in the ology of disease. References . 1. It', urray, H.M.: Report of the Department Com mittee on Compensation for Industrial Diseases, London: Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1907. 2. Merewether, E.R.A.: Annual Report Chief In spector of Factories for Year 1947, London: Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1947, p 79-81. . 3. Bonser, G.M.; Faulds, J.S.; Stewart, M.J.: Occu pational Cancer of the Urinary Bladder in Dyestuffs Operatives and of the Lung in Asbestos Textile Workers and Iron-ore Mines, Amer J Clin Path 26:126-134, 1966. 4. Mancuso, T.F., and Coulter, E.J.: Methodology in industrial Health Studies, Arch Environ Health ,6:210-252, 1963. , 5. 'Selikoff, I.J.; Churg, J.; and Hammond, E.C.: -Asbestos Exposure and Neoplasia, JAMA 188:22-26, 1964. 6. Thomson, J.G.; Kaschula, R.O.C.; and Donald, R.R.: Asbestos as a Modem Urban Ha: S Afr Med J 37:77-81 (Jan 19) 1963. 7. Thomson, J.G.: Asbestos and the Urban Dwe er, Ann NY Acad Set 132:196-214 (Dec 31) 1966,; 8. Cauna, D.; Totten, R.S.; and Gross, P.:' Af? tos Bodies in Human Lungs at Autopsy, JA 192:371-373 (May 3) 1965. 9. Anjilvel, L., and Thurlbeck, W.M.: Incidence Asbestos Bodies, Canad Med Assoc J 95:1179-1 (Dec 3) 1966. 10. Enterlihe, P.E.: Mortality Among Asbesj Products Workers in the United States, Ann Acad Sci 132:166-166 (Dec 31) 1966. 11. County Business Patterns, First Quarter M Part 1, US Department of Commerce and US partment of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1961 Arch Environ Health--Vol 15, Aug 1967