Lung cancer in shipyard workers: a plea for prevention

Our plain-English summary of Lung cancer in shipyard workers: a plea for prevention, by E.L. Wynder (The New England Journal of Medicine, 1978).

The study

• Author: E.L. Wynder
• Journal: The New England Journal of Medicine
• Published: 1978;299(12):651-2
• Type of article: Editorial
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 002161).

In plain English

This is a short editorial, not a research study. The author wrote it to accompany a paper by Blot and co-workers in the same issue of the journal, and it reported no data of its own. The author described the Blot paper as presenting additional evidence for a possible synergistic effect of cigarette smoking and asbestos exposure, or some other industrial carcinogen, among former shipyard workers in Georgia. The author wrote that it appeared to partly explain the relatively high lung cancer rate reported in coastal Georgia. The author noted that the Blot study was a retrospective case-control study based on the recollection of next of kin, and that its authors recognized the difficulties of that approach. The author then argued for prevention. The proposals were to support the Occupational Safety and Health Administration rule requiring employers to keep exposure and medical records, and to go further with a lifelong worker health record that includes smoking and alcohol histories. The author also called for reducing asbestos exposure to the lowest possible levels, educating workers about their risk and motivating them to stop smoking, and getting physicians more involved in occupational medicine.

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: Editorial (opinion piece commenting on another study published in the same issue); no original data
• Who was studied: No study population of its own. The editorial discusses a study by Blot and co-workers of former shipyard workers in Georgia.
• Exposure: Cigarette smoking and asbestos exposure, or some other industrial carcinogen, in shipyard work (as discussed in the Blot study)
• The authors' conclusion: The author called for prevention: lifelong worker health records covering employment, exposures, smoking and alcohol; reducing asbestos exposure to the minimal levels possible; educating workers about their risk and motivating them to stop smoking; and greater physician involvement in occupational medicine.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author noted difficulties inherent in the Blot study's design, a retrospective case-control study based on the recollection of next of kin, which its authors recognized.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Lung cancer, Shipyards and maritime work.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Lung Cancer.

Related studies

• Incidence of bronchial carcinoma in shipyard workers with pleural plaques — J.R. Edge (1979)
• Asbestos exposure control at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard — R.R. Beckett (1976)
• Asbestosis, pulmonary symptoms and functional impairment in shipyard workers — K.H. Kilburn, R. Warshaw, et al. (1985)
• Lung cancer prevalence among shipyard workers — W.J. Nicholson, R. Lilis, et al. (1980)
• Airway obstruction in asbestos-exposed shipyard workers: with and without irregular opacities — K.H. Kilburn, R.H. Warshaw (1990)
• Consequences of long-lasting asbestos-exposure: peripheral blood parameters in shipyard workers with and without asbestosis — I. Trosić, Z. Pisl (1995)

Browse more research in The New England Journal of Medicine, or return to medical research.