Document pmqLknVV7bMmLkGwRoVVpNLr6

A. it. A. ARCHIVES OF IXOVSTRIAL HEALTH Tam JI.-.Vmhr of Deaths end Death Haiti f-et lOOi&l Ay Aoe Grottfi for the Adntl Mole Pofmtetieo of ike United Statti IVM *J-r TNfcl JOUM UMM) 1COAB jstv<n Cmmm a ta* OM i tUN ftsn per itOM U ki ki itu .i * Oua mo -V(tAl Staunio A lla Cniwd tula," Vat 1 ditto. asbestos miners in this studs*. It it there* fore obvious that there art no important differences between the rates for asbestos miners and those for the general population of Quebec and the Dominion of Cauda.' Since it is probable that figures for Iht United States are more complete and, there fore, possibly more comparable to the data for the miners, age-specific rates were com puted from "Vital Statistics of the United States.'" Volumes I and ff. for I95Z These rates have been tabulated in Table 21. It is apparent that these rates compare favorably w ith those for the asbestos miners as shown in Table 8. Still other rates for the United Sutes were obtained from the American Cancer Society, and for males, these were 25.3 per 100.000 in 1933, and 28.0 per 100.000 in 1953. They are not identical w-ith the rate calculated from the figures of the office of Vital Statistics, but this is possibly because the American Can cer Society rates are for males of all ages. Keverthdesi. they. too. compare favorably with the rates oi 25 for 3-1 (or total cases) obtaining among the asbestos miners. Turning for a moment to a comparison between the asbestos miners and persons who are exposed to asbestos in one form nr another fas distinguished from the gen eral population groups just discused. who have no exposure) an interesting observa tion can be developed by deduction. Hueper " has stated that there arc about 35.00Q persons exposed n the United Sutes, and we have found that the Canadian mines employ about 8000. Elsewhere. H has been estimated that the workers in England who have exposure total between 3000 and 5000. With workets in Africa, Denmark, Nor way, and other countries, at least 50.000 persons must be exposed throughout the world, and it can be assumed that this number has been fairly constant in the 20 yean since 1935 when the first case of asbestosis with lung cancer was reported. At least 1.000,000 man-years of exposure has thus been accumulated, and this figure can be divided by the approximate)}' 350 cases of lung cancer with asbestosis re ported during the 20-y<sr period. This gives a rate of 15 per lOOjOOO, which is si least indicative that any lung cancer rate which can be calculated for workers ex posed to asbestos dust is not much greater than that for the unexposed population. Companion Bem-ten Elgin Counties Adjoeem to the Ashes:Os-produsing Areas end Etch Selected C:untiei.--~o compare lur.g cancer mortality rates in the counties sur rounding the asbestos-producing areas with another group of counties in which no as bestos miners are likely to reside, the rates were computed on the basis of figures for the years 1950 through 1953. The eight counties selected for comparison were Argenteuil. Chateaugay. Momma guy. Portneuf, Richlieu. . Riviere-du-Loup. StHyacinthe. and Terrebonne, mainly betause they represent a wide geographic distribu tion throughout the Province. The counties Selected because of their proximity to the asbestos mines include Arthabaska. Beauce. Drummond. Frontenac. Megantic. Rich mond. Sherbrooke, and Wolfe. Table 22 shows the number of lung cancer deaths for the years 1930 through 1955 for each of these counties, and a mortality rate, based on the adult male population in 1952. To emphasise the comparison, Megantic County has been shown separately, as has the Province of Quebec and also the Prov ince with the right "asbestos-producing'" counties subtracted. Because of its unique lung cancer death rate, Montreal <t Isle de Jesus has also been listed in order to provide further comparison. ft is apparent .'rum tne table that the lung cancer death rate for the eight counties ' 648 Vet. IT, Jmte, S9H