Documents mesothelioma 160 results

"The incidence of cancer among employees of a Norwegian asbestos-cement factory was studied in relation to duration of exposure and time since first exposure. The factory was active in 1942-1968. Most of the asbestos in use was chrysotile, but for technical reasons 8% amphiboles were added.This study showed a high incidence of mesothelioma and a high ratio of mesothelioma to lung cancer among asbestos-cement workers. The high incidence of mesothelioma was probably due to the fact that a relatively high proportion of amphiboles was used in the production process."

"In a cohort of some 11,000 men born 1891-1920 and employed in the Quebec chrysotile production industry, including a small asbestos products factory, of 9780 men who survived into 1936, 8009 are known to have died before 1993, 38 probably from mesothelioma--33 in miners and millers and five in factory workers. Among the 5041 miners and millers at Thetford Mines, there had been 4125 deaths from all causes, including 25 (0.61%) from mesothelioma, a rate of 33.7 per 100,000 subject-years; the corresponding figures for the 4031 men at Asbestos were eight out of 3331 (0.24%, or 13.2 per 100,000 subject-years). At the factory in Asbestos, where all 708 employees were potentially exposed to crocidolite and/or amosite, there were 553 deaths, of which five (0.90%) were due to mesothelioma; the rate of 46.2 per 100,000 subject-years was 3.5 times higher than among the local miners and millers. Six of the 33 cases in miners and millers were in men employed from 2 to 5 years and who might have been exposed to asbestos elsewhere; otherwise, the 22 cases at Thetford were in men employed 20 years or more and the five at Asbestos for at least 30 years. The cases at Thetford were more common in miners than in millers, whereas those at. Asbestos were all in millers. Within Thetford Mines, case-referent analyses showed a substantially increased risk associated with years of employment in a circumscribed group of five mines (Area A), but not in a peripherally distributed group of ten mines (Area B); nor was the risk related to years employed at Asbestos, either at the mine and mill or at the factory. There was no indication that risks were affected by the level of dust exposure. A similar pattern in the prevalence of pleural calcification had been observed at Thetford Mines in the 1970s. These geographical differences, both within the Thetford region and between it and Asbestos, suggest that the explanation is mineralogical. Lung tissue analyses showed that the concentration of tremolite fibres was much higher in Area A than in Area B, a finding compatible with geological knowledge of the region. These findings, probably related to the far greater biopersistence of amphibole fibres than chrysotile, have important implications in the control of asbestos related disease and for wider aspects of fibre toxicology."

"Objectives The study analyzed the recent trend in the incidence of mesothelioma in Finland and evaluated the coverage of reporting work-related mesothelioma.

Methods The incidence of mesothelioma in 1960--1995 was retrieved from the Finnish Cancer Registry, and the number of asbestos-associated work-related mesotheliomas were taken from the Finnish Register of Occupational Diseases.

Results The annual number of mesotheliomas increased rapidly in 1975--1990. In the 1990s, the age-adjusted incidence remained relatively stable for Finnish men. The annual number of cases still increased among men over 65 years of age, but decreased slightly among men under 55 years of age and among women. About 35 annual cases were diagnosed among the men and 10--15 among women in the mid-1990s. The reporting of work-related mesotheliomas improved during the Finnish asbestos program in 1987--1992. In 1993--1995 about 30 annual cases (ie, about 90% of all pleural and 50% of the peritoneal mesotheliomas in men) were reported to be work-related.

Conclusion The increasing trend in the incidence of mesothelioma in Finland slowed down in the 1990s, and the maximum of asbestos-related cases in the early 2000s will probably be clearly less than the 100 annual cases estimated in the early 1990s. If the observed trend continues up to 2010, about 40--50 cases among men and 10--20 among the women will then be diagnosed annually. Altogether 40--50 of these cases would be related to occupational asbestos exposure."

This report describes the background to the formation of the CEC Mesothelioma Panel along with its terms of reference. One of the basic objectives of the Panel is the standardisation of the pathological diagnosis of mesothelioma by exchange of information between members of national panels. Other topics covered in this report: progress of the Panel; proposal for an EEC Directive on asbestos; degree of confidence in diagnosing diffuse malignant mesothelioma and criteria for its diagnosis; educational role of the Panel; achievements and the future. Names and addresses of Panel members are included

"Objectives:
Our aim is to review all the literature concerning Metsovo Lung as an emblematic story that demonstrates the strong relationship between non-occupational but environmental and ecological exposure to asbestos and lung diseases.
Materials and Methods:
We searched data from the 1970s when extensive pleural calcifications causing malignant mesothelioma appeared at a high incidence beyond expectation. The most reliable studies were selected for our research from 2017-2023.
Results:
There wasn't occupational exposure in Epirus. This finding reasonably raised the question of whether it was indeed tuberculous pleurisy or something else. The biopsies carried out confirmed that these were tremolite asbestos fibers. These fibers were derived from ‘luto', a water-shielding material containing asbestos. The entire population of Metsovo was exposed to asbestos, without knowing it. This is a global phenomenon, according to which, it is made from a traditional shielding material. The abandonment of ‘luto' and its non-use brought about a gradual reduction of the phenomenon, which also marks the reduction of mesothelioma.
Conclusion:
Lessons learned from the history of Metsovo lung showed the importance of the combination of theory and practice in the context of nonoccupational exposure to asbestos. From a public health point of view, it's crucial to know whether exposure to low levels of asbestos is able to induce pleural mesothelioma."

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

"Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a rare and aggressive tumour type arising from the mesothelial surface of the pleural space. MPM is difficult to treat and commonly associated with asbestos exposure, which is its main risk factor. In Europe, the incidence is about 20 per million, with large inter-country variation. As a ban on the use of asbestos was proposed quite recently in most countries, and the median latency between asbestos exposure and MPM onset is about 40 years, incidence rates in some European nations are still rising, with peak incidences expected around 2020 and beyond. Moreover, asbestos continues to be used in many developing and emerging countries of the world, suggesting a potential mesothelioma epidemic in the future. The clinical signs are usually late and nonspecific. Chest computed tomography scanning, a key imaging procedure in MPM, usually shows unilateral pleural effusion, sometimes combined with pleural thickening …"

"BACKGROUND:
The goal of this study is to develop a general population job-exposure matrix (GPJEM) on asbestos to estimate occupational asbestos exposure levels in the Republic of Korea.
METHODS:
Three Korean domestic quantitative exposure datasets collected from 1984 to 2008 were used to build the GPJEM. Exposure groups in collected data were reclassified based on the current Korean Standard Industrial Classification (9th edition) and the Korean Standard Classification of Occupations code (6th edition) that is in accordance to international standards. All of the exposure levels were expressed by weighted arithmetic mean (WAM) and minimum and maximum concentrations.
RESULTS:
Based on the established GPJEM, the 112 exposure groups could be reclassified into 86 industries and 74 occupations. In the 1980s, the highest exposure levels were estimated in "knitting and weaving machine operators" with a WAM concentration of 7.48 fibers/mL (f/mL); in the 1990s, "plastic products production machine operators" with 5.12 f/mL, and in the 2000s "detergents production machine operators" handling talc containing asbestos with 2.45 f/mL. Of the 112 exposure groups, 44 groups had higher WAM concentrations than the Korean occupational exposure limit of 0.1 f/mL.
CONCLUSION:
The newly constructed GPJEM which is generated from actual domestic quantitative exposure data could be useful in evaluating historical exposure levels to asbestos and could contribute to improved prediction of asbestos-related diseases among Koreans."