Research on health effects of asbestos

Our plain-English summary of Research on health effects of asbestos, by L.J. Cralley, W.C. Cooper, W.S. Lainhart, et al (Journal of Occupational Medicine., 1968).

The study

• Authors: L.J. Cralley, W.C. Cooper, W.S. Lainhart, M.C. Brown
• Journal: Journal of Occupational Medicine.
• Published: 1968;10(1):38-41
• Cited by: 2 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 001443).

In plain English

This article was not a study of workers or patients. It set out research recommendations from a meeting on December 7 and 8, 1966, sponsored by the Occupational Health Program of the U.S. Public Health Service's National Center for Urban and Industrial Health. The authors stated that, although asbestos had been in industrial use for over 50 years, much was unknown about its health effects and safe exposure levels. They reported that U.S. consumption for 1958 to 1963 was around 750,000 short tons a year: about 93% chrysotile, 3.5% crocidolite, 2.5% amosite and 1% anthophylite and tremolite. They wrote that the agents causing disease in past studies were generally unknown. Possible agents included the fibers themselves, trace minerals, polycyclic aromatic compounds, processing additives, and smoking. The paper posed eight questions, from disease patterns by fiber type and dose to prevention and surveillance. It proposed projects in epidemiology, clinical and human pathology (including a mesothelioma case registry), animal and tissue-culture experiments, and fiber chemistry and physics. The authors called defining safe exposure levels the prime objective.

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: Research recommendations (position paper) arising from a Public Health Service meeting; not an original study
• Who was studied: No study population; the paper reports recommendations from a meeting held December 7 and 8, 1966, chaired by Murray C. Brown, M.D.
• Exposure: Asbestos in general. The paper gives U.S. consumption as about 93% chrysotile, 3.5% crocidolite, 2.5% amosite and 1% anthophylite and tremolite, and discusses associated materials (trace minerals, polycyclic aromatic compounds, processing additives, tobacco smoke)
• Main results:
  • The authors stated that the agents responsible for disease seen in past studies were generally unknown
  • The authors noted a long latent period of 20 or more years from first exposure to onset of disease as a major problem in research
  • Proposed epidemiology projects, including longitudinal studies of groups of workers
  • Proposed clinical and human pathology projects, including establishing a mesothelioma case registry with uniform diagnostic criteria
  • Proposed animal experimentation and tissue culture projects
  • Proposed studies of the chemical and physical characteristics of fibers
• The authors' conclusion: The authors stated that defining safe exposure levels was the prime objective of the research. They wrote that because disease diminished when heavy dust exposures were reduced, safe levels of exposure could be established with enough knowledge of the responsible agents and dose-response data

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Asbestosis.

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