Document wD9vbw67JNQyR6Y9OqDmzbE6E

FILE NAME: General Motors (GM) DATE: 1986 May 15 DOC#: GM046 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Published Article Presented at GM Cancer Research Foundation - Mesothelioma and Mineral Fibers 9 - ^ B ' _]2L1Y_lii_57(lO) : 1905-1911. CHARLES S. MOTT PRIZE Mesothelioma and Mineral Fibers J. CHRISTOPHER WAGNER IN 1952. the ChiefMining Engineer of the South African Government wrote a memorandum to the Minister o f Mines enquiring if ail types o f asbestos caused the same were identical to those o f the patient that I had demon strated. It was agreed that Paul Marchand. Dr. Fam'sa s* sistant. would biopsy the pleura o f these people. Within diseases. Rather by chance. I was appointed Asbestosis a month. I had a further 12 specimens o f what had pre Research Fellow at the South Africa Pneumoconiosis Re viously been considered a very rare tumor. Fortunately, search Unit in 1954. and asked to answer the question. at this stage. Professor Paul Steiner from Chicago was This investigation is still continuing. visiting us and he confirmed my diagnosis o f meso I have had seven! significant " lucky breaks.** The first thelioma. of these was in 1956. when I undertook a necropsy ex We were puzzled a s to why we were seeing so many o f amination on a black adult male who had been the shower these tumors. 1 then recalled that we had seen asbestos attendant on one o f the W itwatersnnd Gold Mines. He bodies in the first case and that 90 miles west o fKimberley was thought to have died from tuberculosa, terminating were the large mines which had been developed along the with pleural infection which did not respond to chemo so-called blue asbestos mountains, a range o f hills stretch therapy. Much to my surprise I found a huge gelatinous ing for more than 400 miles from the Orange River in tumor completely filling the right chest cavity, with the the south to the Botswana border in the north. We then collapsed lung in the center. Extensive histologic and his- meticulously examined every scrap oflun g tissue that had lochemical studies confirmed that the tum or was a me accompanied the biopsy specimens, and in three more sothelioma of the pleura, while in the lung tissue we ob cases we found occasional asbestos bodies. 1 therefore served a few asbestos bodies, but no evidence o f pulmo suggested that we should consider an association between nary fibrosis. the blue (croddolhe) asbestos mines and development o f 1presented the case; with the full radiologic and clinical the mesotheliomas. The next case which was submitted finding, at the next meeting o f the local chest group. A was o fa woman aged 55 years who gave a history ofhaving week later, our C hiefTboradc Surgeon. Libero Fam . was been bora in Kimberley where her father was a dentist. called down to the town o f Kimberley, the center c f the When she was 1year old. the family had moved to Prieska, diamond mining industry, to see a patient While he was one o f the asbestos mining villages, where she lived for 5 there, he was approached by Dr. K it Sleggs, Chief Medical years before returning to Kimberley. All she remembered Officer o f the local Tuberculosis Hospital, who stated that o f it was that there was a mill in the middle o f the village when he had first arrived in Kimberley in 1946. tuber which produced clouds o f blue d u st culosis was endemic, with a high mortality rate, particu From further cases referred by Dr. Sleggs. we obtained larly when the infection had spread to the pleura. In 1952, histories showing that few o f the patients had been em the antituberculosis drugs became available which led to ployed by industry working as insulators with blue as a rapid increase in survival from the whole region, with bestos on steam locom otives.u The majority, however, the exception o f the cases of pleurisy from the west o f had only lived in the vicinity o f the asbestos mills, some Kimberley, some of whom seemed to have a secondary for very short periods, and, on average, their tumors de tumor. It wasrecognized by people o fthis area that anyone veloped 44 years after exposure. who developed fluid in his chest would die within the The next question was, were the tumors confined to year. Dr. Sleggs took Dr. Fatti to the hospital where, to exposure to blue asbestos or were other types o f fiber in his amazement, he saw the radiographs o f 14 cases that volved? South Africa was the ideal country for this study: First, it is the only region in the world in which the three m ajor types o f asbestos-- croddoiite, am osite. and chry- / Presented tt the 1985 Genenl Mown Cancer Research Fouadi Pnzewmaes Laureata Locwra Jack Matur Audftonum. Naturai strano of Hcafth. BctbexU. Maryland. June 12. 1985. sotile--are mined, the latter accounting for more than 96% o f the world's production. Secondly, these deposits had been exploited for more than 40 years by large labor 1905 Code 36 38 46 47 52 53 54 90 82