Quoted from http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2012/02/01/asbestos-study-mcgill.html

 

McGill asbestos study flawed, epidemiologist says

Government plans to approve asbestos sales to developing world

 

CBC News

February 2, 2012

 

Related Links

Review of asbestos studies
Asbestos advice rejected
The National: Canada’s Ugly Secret
Indian workers rebuke Quebec over asbestos
CBC Archives: Asbestos: Magic Mineral or Deadly Dust?
Asbestos mining stops

External Links

Chrysotile Institute
Dr. Egilman’s asbestos index
 

A major 40-year study on asbestos safety completed by a group of scientists at McGill University is flawed, lacks transparency and contains manipulated data says Dr. David Egilman, a professor at Brown University, health activist and longtime industry critic.

The study, which followed the health of 11,000 miners and mill workers in Quebec between 1966 and the late 1990s, is used by the Chrysotile Institute — a lobby arm funded by, overseen and closely associated with both Liberal and Conservative governments — to promote the use of asbestos overseas.

According to Egilman, as the dangers of asbestos became better known in the 1960s, the industry decided to do its own research and hired Dr. John Corbett McDonald at McGill University’s School of Occupational Health. Industry documents obtained by CBC News showed it wanted to conduct research similar to that in the tobacco industry, which stated that “Industry is always well advised to look after its own problems.”

“Doubt is their product. They just need to have a little doubt in the dialogue. OK? And doubt allows you to go in and say, OK, maybe they’re right, maybe we’re right, but nobody’s sure,” says Egilman, who has been investigating the dangers of asbestos for over two decades.

Starting in the mid-1960s, McDonald headed the McGill study. The CBC has documents that show payments from the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association to McDonald and other researchers at the McGill School of Occupational Health totalling almost a million dollars from 1966 to 1972.

[Article continues at original source]

 

Quoted from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16847575

 

Asbestos in schools ‘a national scandal’ – MPs

 

The presence of asbestos in most UK state schools constitutes a “national scandal”, MPs and peers have said.

An all-party group is calling for a scheme to remove the material after studying estimates which suggest it was present in more than 75% of schools.

More than 140 teachers have died from the rare asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma in the past 10 years.

Education chiefs say it is unacceptable for schools to ignore guidance but that undamaged asbestos should be left.

Last year, the Department for Education (DfE) revealed that its “best estimate” was that more than three-quarters of schools contain asbestos.

The Parliamentary Group on Occupational Safety and Health’s chairman, Jim Sheridan, said: “This is a national scandal.

“Urgent action is needed to prevent more pupils, teachers and other staff being exposed to this deadly killer dust.

[Article continues at original source]

 

Quoted from http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/early/2012/01/24/09031936.00168111.abstract?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=1&RESULTFORMAT=&andorexacttitle=or&andorexacttitleabs=and&fulltext=asbestos&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&usestrictdates=yes&resourcetype=HWCIT&ct

Mesothelioma incidence projections in South East England

Abstract

We estimated the past and future age-standardised incidence rates of mesothelioma by birth cohort and by period of diagnosis in South East England.

We extracted data on patients diagnosed with mesothelioma (ICD-10 C45) between 1960 and 2009 from the Thames Cancer Registry. We calculated the age-standardised incidence rates using the European standard population. We used age-cohort and age-period modelling to estimate the age-specific incidence rates for the 1900 to 1950 birth cohorts and the 1935 to 2034 calendar periods.

A much more pronounced increase in mesothelioma incidence between 1972 and 2007 was observed in males than in females. In both sexes, the incidence rates increased in successive generations up to the 1945 birth cohort. Projection of rates in the future showed an increase in incidence in males until 2022 and a decrease thereafter. Among females, the incidence rate was predicted to increase gradually until reaching its maximum around 2027, and to remain stable thereafter.

The occurrence of mesothelioma is closely linked to occupational exposure to asbestos in the 1960s and 1970s and due to the long latency period the incidence of mesothelioma is projected to increase until the 2020s.

Quoted from http://oem.bmj.com/content/early/2012/01/20/oemed-2011-100229.abstract

Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Lung cancer mortality in North Carolina and South Carolina chrysotile asbestos textile workers

• Accepted 9 December 2011
• Published Online First 20 January 2012

Abstract

Objectives Studies of workers in two US cohorts of asbestos textile workers exposed to chrysotile (North Carolina (NC) and South Carolina (SC)) found increasing risk of lung cancer mortality with cumulative fibre exposure. However, the risk appeared to increase more steeply in SC, possibly due to differences in study methods. The authors conducted pooled analyses of the cohorts and investigated the exposure-disease relationship using uniform cohort inclusion criteria and statistical methods.

Methods Workers were included after 30days of employment in a production job during qualifying years, and vital status ascertained through 2003 (2001 for SC). Poisson regression was used to estimate the exposure-response relationship between asbestos and lung cancer, using both exponential and linear relative rate models adjusted for age, sex, race, birth cohort and decade of follow-up.

Results The cohort included 6136 workers, contributing 218?631 person-years of observation and 3356 deaths. Cumulative exposures at the four study facilities varied considerably. The pooled relative rate for lung cancer, comparing 100f-yr/ml to 0f-yr/ml, was 1.11 (95% CI 1.06 to 1.16) for the combined cohort, with different effects in the NC cohort (RR=1.10, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.16) and the SC cohort (RR=1.67, 95% CI 1.44 to 1.93).

Conclusions Increased rates of lung cancer were significantly associated with cumulative fibre exposure overall and in both the Carolina asbestos-textile cohorts. Previously reported differences in exposure-response between the cohorts do not appear to be related to inclusion criteria or analytical methods.

 

Quoted from http://thorax.bmj.com/content/67/2/98.extract

The asbestos disease epidemic: here today, here tomorrow

 

Thorax 2012;67:98-99 doi:10.1136/thoraxjnl-2011-201180

• Editorial

1. Paul Cullinan1,
2. Neil Pearce2

+ Author Affiliations

1. 1Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, National Heart and Lung Institute, London, UK
2. 2Epidemiology and Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK

1. Correspondence to Dr Paul Cullinan, Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, National Heart and Lung Institute, 1b Manresa Road, London SW3 6LR, UK; p.cullinan@imperial.ac.uk

 

In what may be the best ever use of a Wellcome grant, Geoffrey Tweedale, in his fascinating history of the multinational asbestos company Turner & Newall,1 reminds us that asbestos was once known as the ‘magic mineral’. Indeed, in many ways, it is the ideal construction material: tough, durable, light in weight, fire-resistant and very cheap. Unfortunately, asbestos is also, as every respiratory physician knows, highly toxic when inhaled. Total bans on its use are in place in 52 countries including those of the European Union, Australia, Japan and South Africa2; and its use is tightly restricted in the USA, New Zealand and Canada—the last, ironically, among the world’s largest exporters of the material.

Readers from these countries may be surprised to learn that elsewhere the production, sale and use of asbestos continue to flourish and even increase. In 1994, one of us (NP) edited a book3 on occupational cancer in developing countries for the International Agency for Research on Cancer and reported that global asbestos production and use had not declined; rather, the problem was simply being moved from Western countries to emergent economies. Unhappily, the situation has not improved in the intervening 17years. In India, for example, the use of asbestos has doubled in the last decade to about 300?000 tonnes a year by an industry that now employs an estimated 100?000 workers.4 Other major users include China, Brazil, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Indonesia. In these parts of the world, where occupational exposures may be difficult to control and enforce, the great majority of asbestos …

[Full text of this article]

Quoted from http://annhyg.oxfordjournals.org/content/56/1/55.abstract

Asbestos-Related Diseases in Automobile Mechanics

Abstract

 

Purpose: Automobile mechanics have been exposed to asbestos in the past, mainly due to the presence of chrysotile asbestos in brakes and clutches. Despite the large number of automobile mechanics, little is known about the non-malignant respiratory diseases observed in this population. The aim of this retrospective multicenter study was to analyse the frequency of pleural and parenchymal abnormalities on high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) in a population of automobile mechanics.

Methods: The study population consisted of 103 automobile mechanics with no other source of occupational exposure to asbestos, referred to three occupational health departments in the Paris area for systematic screening of asbestos-related diseases. All subjects were examined by HRCT and all images were reviewed separately by two independent readers; who in the case of disagreement discussed until they reached agreement. Multiple logistic regression models were constructed to investigate factors associated with pleural plaques.

Results: Pleural plaques were observed in five cases (4.9%) and interstitial abnormalities consistent with asbestosis were observed in one case. After adjustment for age, smoking status, and a history of non-asbestos-related respiratory diseases, multiple logistic regression models showed a significant association between the duration of exposure to asbestos and pleural plaques.

Conclusions: The asbestos exposure experienced by automobile mechanics may lead to pleural plaques. The low prevalence of non-malignant asbestos-related diseases, using a very sensitive diagnostic tool, is in favor of a low cumulative exposure to asbestos in this population of workers.