[Compensation of occupational diseases during monitoring of the ARDCO cohort].

Introduction: Questions concerning under-reporting of occupational diseases (OD) linked to asbestos exposure are regularly voiced in France. Monitoring of the French multicenter Asbestos-Related Disease Cohort (ARDCO), which ensures post-occupational medical surveillance of subjects having been exposed to asbestos, provides information on (1) the medico-legal steps taken following screening by computed tomography (CT) for benign thoracic diseases, and (2) recognition of OD as a causal factor in malignant diseases.

Methods: OD recognition - and possible compensation - was analyzed in July 2021 among 13,289 volunteers in the cohort recruited between 2003 and 2005.

Pleural plaques and risk of lung cancer in workers formerly occupationally exposed to asbestos: extension of follow-up.

Background: Occupational asbestos exposure is associated with pleural plaques (PP), a benign disease often seen as a marker of past exposure to asbestos and lung cancer. The association between these two diseases has not been formally proved, the aim of this study was to evaluate this association in the asbestos-related disease cohort (ARDCO) cohort.

Methods: ARDCO is a French multicentric cohort including workers formerly occupationally exposed to asbestos from 2003 to 2005.

Deep Learning for the Automatic Quantification of Pleural Plaques in Asbestos-Exposed Subjects.

Objective: This study aimed to develop and validate an automated artificial intelligence (AI)-driven quantification of pleural plaques in a population of retired workers previously occupationally exposed to asbestos.

Methods: CT scans of former workers previously occupationally exposed to asbestos who participated in the multicenter APEXS (Asbestos PostExposure Survey) study were collected retrospectively between 2010 and 2017 during the second and the third rounds of the survey. A hundred and forty-one participants with pleural plaques identified by expert radiologists at the 2nd and the 3rd CT screenings were included.

Interstitial Lung Abnormalities Detected by CT in Asbestos-Exposed Subjects Are More Likely Associated to Age.

Objective: the aim of this study was to evaluate the association between interstitial lung abnormalities, asbestos exposure and age in a population of retired workers previously occupationally exposed to asbestos.

Methods: previously occupationally exposed former workers to asbestos eligible for a survey conducted between 2003 and 2005 in four regions of France, underwent chest CT examinations and pulmonary function testing. Industrial hygienists evaluated asbestos exposure and calculated for each subject a cumulative exposure index (CEI) to asbestos.

Inter-reader agreement in HRCT detection of pleural plaques and asbestosis in participants with previous occupational exposure to asbestos.

Objectives: To investigate inter-reader agreement for the detection of pleural and parenchymal abnormalities using CT in a large cross-sectional study comprising information on individual cumulative exposure to asbestos.

Methods: The project was approved by the hospital ethics committee, and all patients received information on the study and gave their written informed consent. In 5511 CT scans performed in a cohort of retired workers previously exposed to asbestos and volunteering to participate in a multiregional survey programme (Asbestos Related Diseases Cohort, ARDCO), double randomised standardised readings, triple in case of disagreement, were performed by seven trained expert radiologists specialised in thoracic imaging and blind to the initial interpretation.

Occupational and non-occupational attributable risk of asbestos exposure for malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Objectives: To estimate the proportion of pleural mesothelioma cases that can be attributed to asbestos exposure in France including non-occupational exposure.

Methods: A population-based case-control study including 437 incident cases and 874 controls was conducted from 1998 to 2002. Occupational and non-occupational asbestos exposure was assessed retrospectively by two expert hygienists.

Compensation of pleural mesothelioma in France: data from the French National Mesothelioma Surveillance Programme.

Background: The aim of this study was to determine the rates of compensation awarded to patients presenting with pleural mesothelioma and factors linked to such compensation in France.

Methods: The study population consisted of 2,407 patients presenting with pleural mesothelioma, recorded by the National Mesothelioma Surveillance Programme between January 1, 1999 and December 31, 2009. Analysis of claims for recognition as "occupational disease" (OD) and claims for compensation by the Compensation Fund for Asbestos Victims (FIVA) were analyzed.

[Occupational rhinitis].

Introduction: Rhinitis is one of the most common occupational diseases. It is often neglected by those affected because it causes little disability. It is poorly understood by doctors who have insufficient experience of occupational diseases and their causes.

Asbestos exposure and radiological abnormalities among maintenance and custodian workers in buildings with friable asbestos-containing materials.

Objectives: Few studies have been carried out to evaluate the respiratory effects of asbestos exposure of custodian and maintenance workers.

Methods: By a multicentre cross-sectional study, 277 custodian and maintenance employees working in buildings with friable asbestos-containing materials and 87 unexposed subjects were studied for radiological abnormalities by use of the International Labour Office (ILO) classification of radiographs of pneumoconiosis, in relation to parameters of asbestos exposure.

Results: The cumulative asbestos exposure index was generally low (fewer than 5 fibres/ml x years in 82.

Reported incidence of occupational asthma in France, 1996-99: the ONAP programme.

Aims: To estimate the general and specific incidence of occupational asthma in France in 1996-99; and to describe the distribution of cases by age, sex, suspected causal agents, and occupation.

Methods: New cases of occupational asthma were collected by a national surveillance programme, based on voluntary reporting, named Observatoire National des Asthmes Professionnels (ONAP), involving a network of occupational and chest physicians. For each case, the reporting form included information on age, sex, location of workplace, occupation, suspected causal agent, and methods of diagnosis.

[Health effects of artificial mineral fibers].

Data from mortality studies in cohorts of workers employed in the production of man-made mineral fibres, where levels of exposure were generally low, show an excess of mortality by lung cancer, although the role of the fibres themselves remains unclear in this excess. Standardized mortality ratio for lung cancer was lower in glass-wool production workers than in rock-slag-wool workers. Preliminary data for refractory ceramic fibres-exposed workers suggest the occurrence of benign pleural diseases and obstructive functional defects.

[Rolled atelectasis and asbestosis. Apropos of 26 patients].

Round atelectasis (AE) is a benign form of respiratory problem which develops due to fixing of the visceral pleura. This lesion for which the principal cause is exposure to asbestos may pose problems of differential diagnosis with bronchopulmonary cancer. In a cohort of 286 patients suffering from benign asbestos related pleural disease the diagnosis of round atelectasis was made on computerized tomography in 26 patients (31 AE) on the following criteria: rounded opacities of less than 7 cm in diameter situated at the periphery of the lung in contact with a thickened pleura with an acute angle linking the pleura and the opacity, a reduction of lung volume on the side of the atelectasis and the presence of a "comet tail sign".

Consequences of occupational asthma on employment and financial status: a follow-up study.

The aim of this study was to describe changes in employment and income following a diagnosis of occupational asthma, and to determine what factors might affect these changes. Two hundred and nine patients with occupational asthma were reviewed on average 3.1 yrs after the diagnosis had been made.

Methyl iodide poisoning: report of two cases.

Two workers were poisoned following exposure to methyl iodide with inadequate protective devices. Their cases are presented together with a review of literature. Both patients developed symptoms and signs of cerebellar lesions and damage of the third, fourth, or sixth cranial nerve pathways.

Glutathione transferase activity and formation of macromolecular adducts in two cases of acute methyl bromide poisoning.

Objectives: To determine the activity of glutathione transferase and to measure the S-methylcysteine adducts in blood proteins, after acute inhalation exposure to methyl bromide. To examine the influence of the polymorphism of glutathione-S-transferase theta (GSTT1) on the neurotoxicity of methyl bromide.

Methods: Two workers acutely exposed to methyl bromide with inadequate respiratory protective devices were poisoned.

Respiratory symptoms, ventilatory impairment, and bronchial reactivity in oil mist-exposed automobile workers.

Studies concerning the respiratory effects of oil mists are sparse and contradictory. The aim of this study was to determine the respective effects of occupational exposure to straight cutting oils and soluble mineral oils on the prevalence of respiratory symptoms, ventilatory impairment, and bronchial reactivity. The population study consisted of 308 male workers of a large French car-making plant, including 40 subjects chronically exposed to straight cutting oils (group S), 51 subjects chronically exposed to soluble mineral oils (group E), 139 subjects with chronic dual exposure to straight cutting oils and soluble mineral oils (group D), and 78 unexposed assembly workers used as a control group (group C).