Official Organ of The Massachusetts Medical Study - Action of Asbestos

Our plain-English summary of Official Organ of The Massachusetts Medical Study - Action of Asbestos, by B. Gee, A. Bouhuys (1971).

The study

• Authors: B. Gee, A. Bouhuys
• Published: New England Journal of Medicine. December 2nd 1971
• Type of article: Editorial
• Our copy: from Johns-Manville's own medical library. The article is still under copyright, so we describe it here rather than post it.

In plain English

This item was an editorial, an opinion piece rather than a research study, by B. Gee and A. Bouhuys in the New England Journal of Medicine. The authors wrote that asbestos exposure had become widespread, reaching air, drinking water, wine and beer. They cited other work in which electron microscopy found chrysotile asbestos in the lungs of urban dwellers, and noted there was no evidence at that time of asbestos-linked disease in the general population. They described a study by Murphy and associates in the same issue of pipe coverers in new ship construction. That study indicated asbestosis in 38 per cent after 20 years at dust levels previously regarded as safe. A second Murphy study reported two cases of pleural disease, one a mesothelioma, in workers who sanded asbestos floor tiles. Simulated working conditions there produced 1.3 fibers per milliliter of room air, less than 1/5 of the threshold limit values then in use. Pointing to a latent period of 20 years or more, the authors concluded that more sweeping asbestos control decisions must be made now, on the basis of "reasonable probability" rather than after a delay for a precise definition of dose-response relations.

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 other studies, not original research
• Exposure: Asbestos in general, described as widespread in air, drinking water, wine and beer. Other items come from cited work: chrysotile asbestos in the lungs of urban dwellers, and asbestos dust among pipe coverers in new ship construction and among workers sanding asbestos floor tiles (the Murphy studies).
• Main results:
  • Cited work: electron microscopy of the lungs of urban dwellers showed chrysotile asbestos
  • The authors stated there was no evidence of asbestos-linked disease in the general population at that time
  • Cited study by Murphy and associates (same journal issue): among pipe coverers in new ship construction, asbestosis in 38 per cent after 20 years, at dust concentrations previously regarded as safe
  • Second cited Murphy study: two cases of pleural disease, one a mesothelioma, in workers who sanded asbestos floor tiles
  • In that floor-tile study, simulated working conditions gave 1.3 fibers per milliliter of room air, which the authors said is less than 1/5 of the threshold limit values then in use
  • The authors stated asbestos diseases have a long latent period, 20 years or more
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that more sweeping decisions on asbestos control must be made now, on the basis of reasonable probability rather than after a delay for a precise definition of dose-response relations. They also called for the threshold limit value for asbestos to be lowered far below some recent proposals.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Asbestos Exposure, Chrysotile, Insulator, Mesothelioma, Threshold Limit Value (TLV), Dose-response relationship.

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