US EPA

3084523 

Journal Article 

Relationship between occupations and asbestos-fibre content of the lungs in patients with pleural mesothelioma, lung cancer, and other diseases 

Whitwell, F; Scott, J; Grimshaw, M 

1977 

1 

Thorax
ISSN: 0040-6376
EISSN: 1468-3296 

NIOSH/00073828 

32 

4 

377-386 

English 

929482 

WOS:A1977DT87700001 

The light visible asbestos fiber content of 300 lung specimens has been measured using a potash digestion and phase contrast microscopy technique, and the results have been correlated with the occupations of the patients. Among 100 pleural mesothelioma specimens were 88 where the patients had been exposed to asbestos, and in 73 of these (83%) the lung tissue contained over 100,000 asbestos fibers per gram of dried lung, and only one specimen showed less than 20,000 fibers per gram. When asbestosis was present, the lungs nearly always showed over 3 million fibers per gram. In 100 control lungs (those without industrial disease or lung cancer) there were less than 20,000 fibers per gram of dried lung in 71% of specimens. Lungs from 100 patients with lung cancer but no industrial disease contained less than 20,000 fibers per gram of dried lung in 80% of cases. Patients with parietal pleural plaques nearly all had over 20,000 fibers per gram in their lungs. The number of asbestos fibers found in the lungs was closely related to the occupations of the patients but not to their home environment. Patients who had lived near likely sources of atmospheric asbestos pollution did not have higher asbestos fiber counts than the rest of the patients. It is concluded that there is a definite dose relationship between asbestos exposure and mesothelioma formation but that subasbestosis levels of asbestos exposure do not contribute to the formation of lung cancer in those not subjected to industrial asbestos exposure. 

Asbestos; 1332-21-4; Index Medicus; Asbestosis -- pathology; Middle Aged; Lung -- pathology; Environmental Exposure; Asbestos -- analysis; Asbestos -- adverse effects; Pleural Neoplasms -- chemically induced; Mesothelioma -- chemically induced; Lung Neoplasms -- chemically induced; Occupational Diseases -- chemically induced