American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 154, No. 6 : 538-543
Copyright © 2001 by The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS |
Cancer Mortality among Workers Exposed to Amphibole-free Chrysotile Asbestos
1 Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Teikyo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
2 Department of Occupational Medicine, West China University of Medical Sciences, Chengdu, China.
3 Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
The issue of whether exposure to chrysotile asbestos alone, without contamination from amphibole asbestos, causes lung cancer and mesothelioma was investigated in a 25-year longitudinal study (1972–1996) in Chongqin, China. The study cohort comprised 515 male asbestos plant workers exposed to chrysotile only; the control cohort included 650 non-dust-exposed workers. The results of analysis in which the proportional hazards model was used indicated that mortality due to all causes, all cancers, and lung cancer was related to asbestos exposure; the relative risks, adjusted for age and smoking, were 2.9, 4.3, and 6.6, respectively. Fiber concentrations in the raw material section and the textile section of the plant were 7.6 and 4.5 fibers/ml, respectively. Because of differences between the study and control plants, the authors also compared various sections of the asbestos plant that had different levels of dust exposure. The adjusted relative risk of lung cancer was 8.1 for workers exposed to high versus low levels of asbestos. Two cases of malignant mesothelioma, one pleural and the other peritoneal, were found in the asbestos cohort. These results suggest that heavy exposure to pure chrysotile asbestos alone, with negligible amphibole contamination, can cause lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma in exposed workers.
asbestos; longitudinal studies; lung neoplasms; mesothelioma; occupational exposure; smoking
Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; RR, relative risk
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  M. J Hein, L. T Stayner, E. Lehman, and J. M Dement Follow-up study of chrysotile textile workers: cohort mortality and exposure-response Occup. Environ. Med., September 1, 2007; 64(9): 616 - 625. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 P Boffetta Epidemiology of peritoneal mesothelioma: a review Ann. Onc., June 1, 2007; 18(6): 985 - 990. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 P W J Bartrip History of asbestos related disease Postgrad. Med. J., February 1, 2004; 80(940): 72 - 76. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 H. D. Roach, G. J. Davies, R. Attanoos, M. Crane, H. Adams, and S. Phillips Asbestos: When the Dust Settles—An Imaging Review of Asbestos-related Disease RadioGraphics, October 1, 2002; 22(90001): S167 - 184. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|