Relationship between cumulative occupational exposure to asbestos fibres and respiratory symptoms.

Acta Med Croatica

Andrija Stampar School of Public Health, Medical Faculty, University of Zagreb.

Published: August 1992

A survey of chronic respiratory symptoms was undertaken in 1127 asbestos workers engaged in asbestos mining, asbestos cement production, production of friction materials or in the manufacture of asbestos textile. A control group of 593 persons was also surveyed. The exposure of asbestos workers was analysed by evaluating separately the cumulative exposure to total airborne particles and to airborne asbestos fibres. The prevalences of all the respiratory symptoms (chronic cough, chronic phlegm, chronic bronchitis, dyspnoea grade 3+) were significantly higher in asbestos workers compared to controls in both nonsmokers and smokers (p less than 0.01). The prevalences of all the respiratory parameters in asbestos workers increased with both the length of employment and cumulative exposure to total airborne particles. Prevalences of chronic cough, chronic phlegm and chronic bronchitis did not show an increase with cumulative exposure to airborne asbestos fibres expressed as fibres/cc years. It is concluded that the development of chronic cough, chronic phlegm and chronic bronchitis in asbestos workers is likely to be an unspecific effect of the exposure to the difficulty soluble airborne particles rather than a specific effect of the exposure to airborne asbestos fibres.

Download full-text PDF

Source

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

asbestos workers
20
asbestos fibres
16
asbestos
12
respiratory symptoms
12
cumulative exposure
12
airborne particles
12
airborne asbestos
12
chronic cough
12
cough chronic
12
chronic phlegm
12

Similar Publications

This short review addresses the pressing issue of lung cancer among firefighters, a population facing unique occupational hazards such as smoke inhalation and asbestos exposure. With lung cancer being a leading global cause of death, the study emphasizes the disproportionate burden on firefighters. Notably, wildfire smoke, containing carcinogenic elements, poses a rising significant threat to firefighters' respiratory health.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Exposure to asbestos in the workplace is currently recognized as one of the leading causes of work-related deaths, with more than half of deaths attributable to cancer.

Aims: The aim of this systematic literature review was to investigate the mental health and psychological distress of patients affected by asbestos-related diseases and their caregivers.

Methods: The review was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Respiratory Diseases with High Occupational Fraction in Italy: Results from the Italian Hospital Discharge Registry (2010-2021).

Healthcare (Basel)

December 2024

Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Epidemiology and Hygiene, Italian National Workers' Compensation Authority (INAIL), Via Stefano Gradi 55, 00143 Rome, Italy.

Objectives: Occupational respiratory diseases represent a major public health concern worldwide. This study analyses the hospitalization costs and characteristics of four major occupational respiratory diseases: malignant mesothelioma (MM), sinonasal cancer (SNC), pneumoconiosis (PN), and hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP). The findings are situated within the context of Italy's population trends and healthcare system, offering insights into the economic and clinical burden of these diseases.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Advancing Health Equity Metrics: Estimating the Burden of Lung Cancer Attributed to Known Carcinogens by Socio-economic Position.

Am J Epidemiol

December 2024

Univ Rennes, CHU Rennes, Inserm, EHESP, Irset (Institut de recherche en santé, environnement et travail) - UMR_S 1085, F-35000 Rennes, France.

Attributable burden of disease estimates reported population-wide do not reflect social disparities in exposures and outcomes. This makes one of the influential scientific tools in public health decision-making insensitive to the distribution of health impacts between socioeconomic groups. Our aim was to use the often-overlooked distributive property of the population attributable fraction (PAF) to quantitatively partition the population burden attributed to know risk factors into subgroups defined by their socioeconomic position (SEP).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Occupational and/or environmental exposure to asbestos can lead to clinical manifestation of a variety of diseases, including malignant mesothelioma (MM), a rare cancer with a particularly high incidence rate in areas with a long history of asbestos processing. This paper aims to describe brief psychoanalytic groups (BPGs), which is an intervention model aimed at MM patients and their families in the early stages of the disease, shortly after diagnosis. The BPG model comprises 12 weekly sessions of 1 h each, co-led by two psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapists who are trained in working with cancer patients and their families and in the specifics of the BPG setting.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!