Occupational Lung Diseases

Our plain-English summary of Occupational Lung Diseases, by H. Weill (1981).

The study

• Author: H. Weill
• Published: Hospital Practice 16(4):65-68, 73-76 And 78-80, April (1981)
• Type of article: Journal article
• Our copy: from Johns-Manville's own medical library, J-M no. 001998. The article is still under copyright, so we describe it here rather than post it.

In plain English

This 1981 article by the author, from Tulane University, was a review of occupational lung diseases, the fifth in a series of eight on bronchopulmonary diseases. It covered mineral dusts such as silica (especially in sandblasting), asbestos and coal; organic dusts, including cotton dust; and irritant gases and chemical vapors such as chlorine and toluene diisocyanate. In the asbestos section, the author described a study done at the author's center of 5645 men who worked at two asbestos-cement building materials plants. Chrysotile was the main fiber, and pipe production at the second plant used crocidolite. Only men who survived at least 20 years after starting work were included. Workers in the three lowest exposure categories (100 million particles per cubic foot-years or less) showed no excess deaths. In the two highest categories, lung cancer deaths were about two to three times more frequent than expected from U.S. and Louisiana rates. No excess was seen for other causes. Crocidolite exposure significantly added to lung cancer risk, especially for intermittently exposed maintenance workers. The author noted that not finding a risk at lower exposures does not necessarily mean such exposure is safe, and that smoking information was lacking.

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: Narrative review article (fifth in a series of eight on bronchopulmonary diseases) covering occupational lung diseases. It includes a description of a mortality study of asbestos-cement workers carried out at the author's research center.
• Who was studied: Asbestos study: 5645 men employed at either of two asbestos-cement building materials plants. Only those who survived at least 20 years after first employment were included. At the time of the study, 11% were known to have died, 64% were known to be alive, and the status of 25% was uncertain.
• Exposure: Asbestos dust in asbestos-cement manufacturing (shingles, corrugated sheeting, roofing materials, asphalt flooring, pipes). Chrysotile was the predominant fiber in both plants, and pipe production in the second plant involved crocidolite. Cumulative exposure was estimated from previous dust-sampling data by job, product and year, expressed in millions of particles per cubic foot-year (mppcf-yr), and grouped into five categories.
• Main results:
  • In the two highest exposure categories (101 mppcf-yr or higher), death from lung cancer was about two to three times more frequent than expected from U.S. and Louisiana data. No excess mortality was seen in the three lowest categories (100 mppcf-yr or less).
  • No excess mortality for any other cause, malignant or nonmalignant, was observed in any exposure category.
  • In standardized mortality ratio analysis, crocidolite exposure significantly added to the risk of lung cancer compared with chrysotile-only exposure. This was especially so for workers intermittently exposed to crocidolite, who held maintenance jobs involving short periods of high dust concentration.
• The authors' conclusion: The author stated that data such as these would appear to have implications for the development of regulatory guidelines, noting that the United Kingdom and Sweden treat crocidolite as more hazardous than other types of asbestos.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The failure to show an increased lung cancer risk at lower exposure levels does not necessarily mean such exposure is safe. It may mean only that any risks at those levels were too small to be detected by the standard epidemiologic methods used.
  • The study lacked information on workers' smoking habits.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Occupational Lung Disease, Asbestos-Cement, Chrysotile, Crocidolite, Million Particles per Cubic Foot (mppcf), Lung Cancer.

Browse return to medical research.