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wirfcero Anwhbe* otsKtfiMrfiow indi . The National institute of Occupational .
cate that the mcrease is oh the order of tiro or three times the number of ex-
Safety. and"Health (NIOSH) rellpd . heavily pn the British,Standard ip its
Moted tumors (Sriikoff. Hammond and : recommendation for promulgation of the
of lung caneerlnoreaaed markedly over what wouldbe e*pected; amotj other cigarette smokers, to tlteabaenoiofaibestos exposure. Thus, these scientists
calculated that ah wbestoeworker who smoked cigarettes had 99times the risk of dying of liing..-.canter;, as compared with like Individuals without cigarette smoking, or aebeetop work.. TTMafindtag has been confirmed by larger studies (Hammond and 8ellkm$:, 1973(17)) where, again, (t was fpupfiwathon-
1978.(41), Ehhte and Simpson, asbestos standard set by OSHA in 1972;,
IMl (91). Although thtetocreased risk Is relatively limited, espeoikUy when
Subsequent to the Implementation of tlte OSHA permanent asbestoe standard
oOmpared withlungcancer and mteo- in 1972; results of a new evaluation of
tbeUama, it Is nevertheless of eonslder- the earlier British-factory, worker pcpii^ : ahte hnpbrtaheg since a twte or three latlon showed many abnormal x-ray.
fold increase, hi aiitek common tumors findings of the lungs and pleura,
becontes an lmpbrteuit cause of death for It to reported that there to now an
theworkers Involved. ' ~ ' bio' been suggested' that
other
excess lung cancer mortality rate'mh(mg : workers who became employed at the
tumors are also fautmosed to incidence textile mfil after 1933 and whose lack of
___... of
cUnlsiat or X-ray evidence of'asbestesls ^ (SfiM ond McHffl. led to the development of the British as
smoking asbestos worker* had: ISi* lung -testes*:1.
: and Berry, 1978 bestos stendaid. '
cahcem vh^ those vdig. edh^od had (34?>.andof
esophagus (SCUkoff,
much more lung cancer thanweuldhave Hammond,
Seldman. 1973 (41)).
been' expected had thigjr hot been m- However, data concerning these neo-
bestos workers. Calculations suggest that Plasms are less extenslve than for lung
cigarette-smoking OAbestoe workers have cancer, mesothelioma and gastro-lntestl-
aprpoximately eight times the risk of nalcancer and further experiences are
developing lung cancer., cmhpaged to awaited; toamrease, they am not very
other cigarette smokem who tire hot oc common tumoreto general and any ln-
Another report of an ongoing study at workers (and their family members) in
a factory producing amostte asbestos be
tween 1941 and 1954, when the factory closed, has shown a high incidence of
X-ray abnormalities and 2 pleural mesothettoma deaths have thus far been Iden tified (1).
cupationally exposed to Mbeejk, : , /
cmase does nd^rwrighheavily on tho .< It Is also reported that clinical data
overall cancer ri^k of asbfstos workers. an htoCPing avaUable conceding as>
association between '^^^oiF expasure v'V OanWtewAi Exrosnra*
. hw.te# Ms scarring to lndlvt&als 'ex-,
poltod at touch lower than occupational Reports of puimopary fibrosis or lung levels. (Anderson. (1)).
- and pleural mesothelioma. This'oahcer, scarring, from Inhalation of asbestos It therefore appears that an exposure "1
which appears to be unrelated,to smok dust In.factories began toappear In the thought sufficiently low to reduce the j
ing. had previously been considered to be literature in the early part of this cen risk of asbestosls has not prevented ) a' very rare tumor. Numerous reports' tury and by 1927 this lung scarring dls- pathogenic changes, including lung can- \
haye confirmed the finding, of Wagner and hls colleagues that mesothellomo
ease was known as "asbestosls^ (Newhouse, 31)).
cer and mesothelioma. (Anderson, (l>). /
can be commonly associated with as bestos exposure. A subsequent report 1iy Enttcknap and: Bmlther, 1964, (191 con cerning workers to a British asbestos
factory demonstrated that the. same tumor could be commonly found in the
abdomen (peritoneal mesothelioma) . as
In 1939, the British Home Office Survey by Merewethler and Price (28),
found that approximately half of a population of asbestos factory Workers were suffering from pulmonary fibrosis,
leading to the ihtooduc.tioh of the As
bestos Factory Regulations of1931. The
NOH-OCCUPATIOHAL, IWDrRECI OCCOTA-
TXONAL KXPOSVRE. OR IMTlHUmENT OX
sBsmr xxposmies
Recent data Indicate the occurrence of asbestos cancer from exposure to low levels of asbestOB, as In environmental
circumstances, or from brief or inter
well os In the chest.
objective of the Regulations, Imple mittent exposures to higher levels,
The exact risk of death of these in- mented In 1933; was to reduce Uie risk of. lit Inhalation etposure experiments,
. variably fatal neoplasipalias net been os
well defined a* has lunjfouicer.although records of cases from hospitals hear onelarge asbestos factory Indicate that It
l^jW^recogn&edT however; that In
addittdh to asbestos-induced lung scar ring, there was also Increasing evidence
rats exposed to asbestos dust were teported to have developed tumors. In cluding mesotheliomas, from as little as
a single 7 hours exposure (48). .
must be very common (Barrow, capstan,
Llvorocse end Schalet, 1997. (8)). Infor mation available 1ram the experience of
asbestos Insulation workers Suggests that approximately five. to seven percent of deaths maybeduetothlsneoplasm
of cancer assoctoted wltb aabeatos exposure.Some workers whose deaths were
attributed to asbestosls were also found to have bad lung cancer. (Nicholson, (38)). .
By i860, through epidemiological
: Analysls of the history of asbestos ex
posureamong individuals to alarge series of cases of mesothelioma In Oireat Britain and South Africa have provided evidence that brief or intermittent exposure to asbestos may, after the passage of dec
(Hammond, ffellkoff and Churg. (17); studlea an association between asbestos ades, result In mesothelioma (Oreenberg Sellkoflf, Hammond and Seldman, 1978,. exposure and mesothellma had been and Davies, 1974 (16); Webster, 1973,
(41)). More recently. It has been sug demonstrated . (Wagner (47) > and was (49)). In such circumstances, It appears
gested that this estimate Is too lew, on soon substantiated by additional1 epl- tbiat the lifetime exposure was less than
the basls of theexperienc* of workers hr demlologtcal studies (NeWliouse (31) , l66 flbers-years/ml. The stuns discrep
a British asbestos factory where calcula Sellkoff (37) ) and clinical diagnosis.
ancy between present projected expo
tions predicted that between 10 and 11 In 1968. Urn Committee of the British sures and tl\ffriska of asbestos cancer ex
percent of deaths would be due to meso Occupational Hygiene Society evaluated ists when considering cases of mesotheli
thelioma (Newhouse and Berry, 1976, worker exposure data In a large asbestos oma resulting from household, contact
(30)).
textile mill dating from Implementation with asbestos among members of fami
A recent'study of meaotheHOmas diag of the Attestor Regulations of 1933 lies or asbestos workers (Lllllngton. 1974
nosed in a hospital located In the vicinity
of a shipyard reported an increased Inci dence of diffuse malignant mesothelioma since World War n, hot only among ex posed shipyard workers, but also among
which Indicated that there was "com paratively little clinical and/or roent genological evidence of asbestosls" at that factory In a survey completed in 1966. Based on that data, the Committee
(25) ). or among residents living In the
vicinity of asbestoe plants. Of consider able Industrial importance has been the recent description of asbestos disease among shipbuilding and ship repair
Individuals with no occupational expo sure. (Hasan. (20fh
(3) Oastro-lntestinal cancer. OastroIntestinal cancers (cancer of the stom ach, colon and rectum) am also in
concluded tor setting a dust exposure level at 160 flberryeara/ml (or 2 flbers/ml for 60 yearn) It would provide a fuB working lifetime without substan
tial risk of developing asbestosls. (OSHA,
workers, few of whom actually work with
asbestos, but many of whom were, In the past, inadvertently exposed to the as bestos dust resulting from the use. of asbestos products by a relatively few
creased In tneldenoe among asbestos 1978. (6>.)
ot Bielr workmates. In 1968, Barries of
^ate- 'fW<u
rtonal itoitm, vol st, no. is*--nuday, juu tv, ivrr
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