Asbestos Body Content Of The Larynx In Asbestos Workers

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos Body Content Of The Larynx In Asbestos Workers, by V.L. Roggli, S.D. Greenberg, J.L. Mclarty, et al (1980).

The study

• Authors: V.L. Roggli, S.D. Greenberg, J.L. Mclarty, G.A. Hurst, C.G. Spivey, L.R. Hieger
• Published: Archives Of Otolaryngology 106(9):533-535, September (1980)
• Type of article: Journal article
• Our copy: from Johns-Manville's own medical library, J-M no. 000853. The article is still under copyright, so we describe it here rather than post it.

In plain English

This report was an autopsy study of the larynx (voice box) in five men who had occupational asbestos exposure and asbestos-associated lung disease. Three were from the Tyler Asbestos Workers Program in Tyler, Texas, a study of former amosite asbestos pipe insulation workers. Ten age-matched men from autopsies at another Houston hospital served as controls. Using a tissue digestion technique, the authors found one asbestos body in the larynx of one worker and 12 in another. They found none in the other three workers and no typical asbestos bodies in any control. Microscope slides of the workers' larynges showed no asbestos bodies and no dysplastic (abnormal) changes in the lining. In the Tyler cohort of 1,050 former asbestos workers, two laryngeal cancers were found where 0.63 were expected. This increase was not statistically significant. The authors concluded that no firm conclusion could yet be reached about asbestos and laryngeal cancer in this cohort, though the evidence for a relationship was suggestive. They said the origin of the laryngeal asbestos bodies could not be determined with certainty.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: autopsy study of five cases with autopsy controls, plus an epidemiologic survey of laryngeal cancer in a worker cohort
• Who was studied: Five men with proven asbestos-associated disease. Three were from the Tyler Asbestos Workers Program, Tyler, Texas, and two were from autopsies at The Methodist Hospital, Houston. Controls were ten age-matched men from autopsies at Ben Taub General Hospital, Houston, aged 53 to 77 years.
• Exposure: Occupational asbestos exposure. Three cases were former amosite asbestos pipe insulation workers. The article's table lists the other two as a pipe insulator at a chemical company and a pipe fitter.
• Main results:
  • By tissue digestion, one asbestos body was isolated from the larynx of subject 1 and 12 from subject 3. None were found in the other three workers.
  • No typical asbestos bodies were isolated from the control larynges. Nonasbestos ferruginous bodies were identified in four of the ten controls.
  • In microscope sections of the workers' larynges, no asbestos bodies and no dysplastic changes of the mucosa were seen.
  • The epidemiologic survey covered the TAWP cohort of 1,050 former asbestos workers, compared with age- and race-specific rates for Texas.
  • Two cases of laryngeal cancer were found in the TAWP cohort, where 0.63 would have been expected in a similar unexposed group.
  • The increase in laryngeal cancer in the cohort was not statistically significant (P less than .16), although the ratio of observed to expected cases was 3.2.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that no firm conclusion could yet be reached about asbestos and laryngeal cancer in this cohort, but that the evidence for such a relationship was suggestive.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The origin of the asbestos bodies found in the two larynges could not be determined with certainty.
  • Contamination from lung tissue was possible, because the larynges of subjects 1, 2 and 3 were stored in the same formaldehyde container as the lungs.
  • The cohort included many heavy drinkers and smokers, which might raise laryngeal cancer incidence independent of asbestos exposure.
  • The period of highest incidence had probably not yet occurred, since the average time since first exposure was only 12 years.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Asbestos Bodies, Autopsy, Asbestos Exposure, Amosite, Pipe Covering, Tissue Digestion, Laryngeal Cancer.

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