Tuesday, August 25, 2015
The Doubters and the Role of Other Forms of Asbestos
My first impression is that there is now less certainty that asbestos inhalation
is associated with pulmonary neoplasia than there was 10 or 20 years ago
Perhaps this is due to greatly reduced dust exposures. Asbestos may after all
prove to be carcinogenic only in overwhelming dosage. Thus, the high prevalence
of neoplasia which was reported several decades ago may be a function
of the severity of exposure rather than an indication of high carcinogenic
potency. I suspect that in the final analysis the carcinogenicity of asbestos will
be rated as of low order. Perhaps carcinogenicity will prove to be a correlate of
asbestosis rather than a specific biological function of the mineral asbestos. This
may be the crux of the matter. In all cases of asbestos-associated lung cancer
that I have personally studied (the number now exceeds two dozen), there
invariably was well-established asbestosis. Not only was the asbestosis of
marked degree in the areas where the cancer arose, but there generally was
evidence from serial chest x-rays that asbestosis had been present in the lungs
.for a protracted period.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments
(
Atom
)
No comments :
Post a Comment