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Mesothelioma
Treatment
Articles
and Abstracts
Mineral
fibre persistence and
carcinogenicity.
Ind
Health 1998 Oct;36(4):372-5
McDonald
JC
Department
of Occupational and Environmental
Medicine, National Heart & Lung
Institute, Imperial College, London,
UK.
Epidemiological
research during the past 40 years has
demonstrated with increasing clarity that
amphibole asbestos fibres--crocidolite,
amosite and tremolite--are more
carcinogenic than chrysotile. A smaller
number of well-controlled studies using
lung burden analyses, while adding to the
specificity of this conclusion, have shown
that amphibole fibres also differ from
chrysotile in being far more durable and
biopersistent in lung tissue. Analyses of
mesothelioma and lung cancer in a large
cohort of Canadian chrysotile miners and
millers have recently shown that the
low-level presence of fibrous tremolite in
these mines, rather than the chrysotile,
may well be responsible. The high risk of
lung cancer, but not of mesothelioma, in
the chrysotile textile industry remains
anomalous and cannot be explained in this
way. These various findings are directly
relevant to the choice of the experimental
methods which should be used for screening
man-made fibres for industrial use.
Although it is clear that biopersistence
is a major determinant of cancer risk in
animals, and perhaps also in man, other
factors affecting the biological activity
of mineral fibres may also be
important.
PMID:
9810152, UI: 99027847
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