Documents nonoccupational factors 19 results

"Background: Asbestos was used in spray applied textured ceilings from 1945 to at least 1980. Exposure to asbestos and the probability of developing lung disease is high in individuals who lived with these types of ceilings in their home. Asbestos exposure and frequency of disease is even higher in an apartment suffering from flooding, maintenance, and/or multiple structural impacts.
Purpose: To examine a case of lung cancer in a non-smoking individual exposed to asbestos from the damaged acoustic ceilings in her apartment.
Methods: The subject's medical and occupational records were obtained and reviewed and a physical examination was performed. Exposure ratings were obtained from previous literature for discussion purposes.
Conclusion: Asbestos-textured ceilings are a possible source of asbestos exposure and there may be a risk of developing cancer in individuals exposed to ceiling deterioration."

"Background:Although Belgium was once a major international manufacturer of asbestos products, asbestos-related diseases in the country have remained scarcely researched.Objectives:The aim of this study is to provide a descriptive analysis of Belgian mesothelioma mortality rates in order to improve the understanding of asbestos health hazards from an international perspective.Methods:Temporal and geographical analyses were performed on cause-specific mortality data (1969–2009) using quantitative demographic measures. Results were compared to recent findings on global mesothelioma deaths.Results:Belgium has one of the highest mesothelioma mortality rates in the world, following the UK, Australia, and Italy. With a progressive increase of male mesothelioma deaths in the mid-1980s, large differences in mortality rates between sexes are apparent. Mesothelioma deaths are primarily concentrated in geographic areas with proximity to former asbestos industries.Conclusions:Asbestos mortality in Belgium has been underestimated for decades. Our findings suggest that the location of asbestos industries is correlated with rates of mesothelioma, underlining the need to avert future asbestos exposure by thorough screening of potential contaminated sites and by pursuing a global ban on asbestos."

"Eric Jonckere est une victime en sursis. Il le sait. Il a sur les radios de ses poumons des taches qui peuvent mener vers le pire. Trois de ses quatre frères et ses deux parents sont morts des suites de l'inhalation de particules amiantées. Sa famille décimée par la maladie s'est lancée tel le Petit Poucet dans un combat à mort contre la direction générale d'Eternit, cette société qui fabrique des matériaux de construction. Cette histoire incroyable, douloureuse est digne du film « Erin Brokovitch ». Tout y est ; la quête de la vérité par les victimes, les tentatives pour étouffer l'affaire, le combat en justice pour qu'Eternit soit reconnue coupable, et la volonté d'Eric de raconter, témoigner pour que d'autres ne meurent pas."

"The paper argues that this lack of regulatory oversight, combined with the informal, contractual, and small-scale work undertaken in domestic homes weakens the basic premise of occupational health and safety, namely that rational decision-making, technical measures, and individual safety behavior lead concerned parties (workers, employers, and others) to minimize risk and exposure. The paper focuses on UK council or social housing, examining how local housing authorities — as landlords — have a duty to provide housing, to protect and to care for residents, but points out that these obligations do not extend to health and safety legislation in relation to DIY undertaken by residents. At the same time, only conventional occupational health and safety, based on rationality, identification, containment, and protective measures, cover itinerant workmen entering these homes. Focusing on asbestos and the way things work in reality, this paper thus explores the degree to which official health and safety regulation can safeguard maintenance and other workers in council homes. It simultaneously examines how councils advise and protect tenants as they occupy and shape their homes. In so doing, this paper challenges the notion of risk as an objective, scientific, and effective measure. In contrast, it demonstrates the ways in which occupational risk — and the choice of appropriate response — is more likely situational and determined by wide-ranging and often contradictory factors."

" Background: Family members of asbestos workers are at increased risk of malignant mesothelioma (MM) . Although the hazard is established, the magnitude of the risk is uncertain, and it is unclear whether risk is also increased for other cancers. Few cohort studies have been reported.
Objective: The "Eternit" factory of Casale Monferrato (Italy) , active from 1907 to 1986, was among the most important Italian plants producing asbestos-cement (AC) goods. In this article we present updated results on mortality and MM incidence in the wives of workers at the factory.
Methods: We studied a cohort of 1,780 women, each married to an AC worker during his employment at the factory but not personally occupationally exposed to asbestos. Cohort membership was defined starting from the marital status of each worker, which was ascertained in 1988 from the Registrar's Office in the town where workers lived. At the end of follow-up (April 2003) , 67% of women were alive, 32.3% dead, and 0.7% lost to follow-up. Duration of exposure was computed from the husband's period of employment. Latency was the interval from first exposure to the end of follow-up.
Results: The standardized mortality ratio (SMR) for pleural cancer [21 observed vs. 1.2 expected ; SMR = 18.00 ; 95% confidence interval (CI) , 11.14–27.52] was significantly increased. Mortality for lung cancer was not increased (12 observed vs. 10.3 expected ; SMR = 1.17 ; 95% CI, 0.60–2.04) . Eleven incident cases of pleural MM were observed (standardized incidence ratio = 25.19 ; 95% CI, 12.57–45.07) .
Conclusions: Household exposure, as experienced by these AC workers' wives, increases risk for pleural MM but not for lung cancer."

"This paper summarizes recent scientific evidence of environmental and occupational links to nearly 30 types of cancer. It includes a critique of the 25 year-old analysis by Doll and Peto and subsequent analyses that attribute an extremely small fraction of cancer deaths to involuntary environmental and occupational exposures. The paper presents the state of the evidence on causal associations between environmental and occupational exposures and specific cancer types. The discussion of each cancer type is introduced by highlights of trends in incidence and mortality rates. Lastly, the paper considers additional indications that involuntary exposures are linked to cancers, such as patterns observed in different geographic areas and among different populations, including patterns of cancer in children. ...

The sum of the evidence regarding environmental and occupational contributions to cancer justifies urgent acceleration of policy efforts to prevent carcinogenic exposures. By implementing precautionary policies, Europeans are creating a model [REACH] that can be applied in the U.S. to protect public health and the environment. To ignore the scientific evidence is to knowingly permit tens of thousands of unnecessary illnesses and deaths each year."

(From the executive summary )

"Background Heavy industrial exposure to asbestos causes lung cancer and mesothelioma, but it remains unknown whether much lower environmental exposure to asbestos also causes these cancers. Nevertheless, regulatory agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), have assessed the risk of lung cancer by extrapolating known risks from past industrial exposure to asbestos to today's much lower environmental asbestos levels (roughly 100,000 times lower). We also tested the EPA's model for predicting the risk of asbestos-induced lung cancer in a population of women with relatively high levels of nonoccupational exposure to asbestos. Methods Mortality among women in 2 chrysotile-asbestos–mining areas of the province of Quebec was compared with mortality among women in 60 control areas, and age-standardized mortality ratios were derived. With the help of an expert panel, we estimated past exposure to asbestos among women in the mining areas and used these data with the EPA's model to predict the relative risk of lung cancer. We then compared this prediction with the observed mortality ratios. Results On the basis of the estimated exposure in the asbestos-mining areas, a relative risk of death due to lung cancer of 2.1 was predicted by the EPA's model, amounting to about 75 excess deaths from lung cancer in this population. By contrast, we calculated a standardized mortality ratio of 1.0 and a standardized proportionate mortality ratio of 1.1 (P>0.05), suggesting that there were between 0 and 6.5 excess deaths from lung cancer among the women with nonoccupational exposure to asbestos. Seven deaths from pleural cancer were observed (relative risk, 7.63; P<0.05). Conclusions We found no measurable excess risk of death due to lung cancer among women in two chrysotile-asbestos–mining regions. The EPA's model overestimated the risk of asbestos-induced lung cancer by at least a factor of 10. "

"Insufficient evidence exists on the risk of pleural mesothelioma from non-occupational exposure to asbestos. A population-based case-control study was carried out in six areas from Italy, Spain and Switzerland. Information was collected for 215 new histologically confirmed cases and 448 controls. A panel of industrial hygienists assessed asbestos exposure separately for occupational, domestic and environmental sources. Classification of domestic and environmental exposure was based on a complete residential history, presence and use of asbestos at home, asbestos industrial activities in the surrounding area, and their distance from the dwelling. In 53 cases and 232 controls without evidence of occupational exposure to asbestos, moderate or high probability of domestic exposure was associated with an increased risk adjusted by age and sex: odds ratio (OR) 4.81, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.8-13.1. This corresponds to three situations: cleaning asbestos-contaminated clothes, handling asbestos material and presence of asbestos material susceptible to damage. The estimated OR for high probability of environmental exposure (living within 2000 m of asbestos mines, asbestos cement plants, asbestos textiles, shipyards, or brakes factories) was 11.5 (95% CI 3.5-38.2). Living between 2000 and 5000 m from asbestos industries or within 500 m of industries using asbestos could also be associated with an increased risk. A dose-response pattern appeared with intensity of both sources of exposure. It is suggested that low-dose exposure to asbestos at home or in the general environment carries a measurable risk of malignant pleural mesothelioma."