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Mesothelioma
Treatment
Articles
and Abstracts
Environmental
exposure to asbestos in asbestos cement
workers: a case of additional exposure
from indiscriminate use of industrial
wastes.
Int
J Occup Med Environ Health
1998;11(2):171-7
The
paper presents data on cancer risk,
especially pleural mesothelioma and lung
cancer, among the workers of asbestos
cement plant who living in the vicinity of
the plant, were also environmentally
exposed to asbestos. In 1959 an asbestos
cement factory was founded in the rural
area of south-eastern Poland. Apart from
chrysotile asbestos, crocidolite was used
till 1985 chiefly for the manufacture of
pressure pipes. The blue asbestos made up
15% of the mean annual tonnage of the
processed asbestos. It was found that soon
after asbestos production had started the
process wastes were made available to
local community, particularly to the
workers of that factory. For over twenty
years asbestos wastes of all kinds, both
wet (process sludge) and dry (from pipe
and sheet grinding) were exploited for the
hardening of roads, paths, farmyards and
sports fields and as construction material
components. For the evaluation of cancer
risk due to occupational exposure to
asbestos a cohort of 1,526 workers
employed in this factory was observed till
the end of 1996. The cohort availability
was 95.6%. Standardized mortality ratio
(SMR) was calculated using the man-years
method. The reference population was the
general population of Poland. The results
of the study demonstrated a statistically
significant increase in the risk of a)
pleural mesothelioma--over an 80-fold
excess among males and over a 200-fold one
among females; b) lung cancer in
females--over a 6-fold excess; c) colon
cancer in males--over a 3-fold excess. In
the 1990 ten new cases of pleural
mesothelioma in the cohort were reported.
As compared to other asbestos-cement
cohorts in Poland, observed at the same
time, this cohort presented a very high
risk of pleural mesothelioma. The analysis
of 16 cases of pleural mesothelioma found
in the cohort from 1987 to 1997 revealed 4
cases with very short employment period
(3.5 months-5 years) including two cases
with relatively short latency period
(11-12 years). In order to find
explanation of these findings, additional
investigations were made. The
epidemiological study indicated that all
these persons were at the same time
subject to non-occupational exposure
associated with massive utilization of
commonly available asbestos-cement wastes
as road surface material.
PMID:
9753896, UI: 98426504
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