Review
The scientific paper entitled Cancer Mortality Among Workers Exposed to Amphibole-Free Chrysotile Asbestos appears in the September 15, 2001 issue (Vol. 154, No. 6, pages 538-543) of the American Journal of Epidemiology. This extremely important study provides definitive epidemiological data which refute industry propaganda that chrysotile (white asbestos) can be used safely. Eiji Yano and his co-authors discuss discrepancies in earlier research which suggested that chrysotile was less carcinogenic than the amphiboles and that mesothelioma in chrysotile workers was due to amphibole contamination of chrysotile. This article is based on a twenty-five year study conducted at an asbestos plant in Chongquin, China which used chrysotile containing less than 0.001 per cent tremolite fibre. The paper concludes that "heavy exposure to pure chrysotile asbestos alone, with negligible amphibole contamination, can cause lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma in exposed workers."
An abstract of this paper can be accessed at:
http://aje.oupjournals.org/content/vol154/issue6/index.shtml
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September 12, 2001
