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Relationship of mortality, occupation, and pulmonary diffusing capacity to pleural thickening in the first national health and nutrition examination survey
Author(s) -
Loomis Dana P.,
Collman Gwen W.,
Rogan Walter J.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
american journal of industrial medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1097-0274
pISSN - 0271-3586
DOI - 10.1002/ajim.4700160501
Subject(s) - medicine , asbestos , pleural thickening , national health and nutrition examination survey , thickening , lung cancer , population , lung , environmental health , surgery , chemistry , materials science , polymer science , metallurgy
We studied the relationship of pleural thickening consistent with asbestos exposure to mortality, career employment in asbestos‐related jobs, and pulmonary diffusing capacity among participants in the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Three “B” readers examined chest X‐rays to identify 59 individuals with such pleural abnormalities. From 1975 to 1984, the all‐cause mortality rate ratio (RR) comparing males with and without occupational pleural thickening was 1.3 (95% C.I. 0.8–2.2). For lung cancer, the mortality RR for males was 3.0 (95% C.I. 1.0–9.1). Career asbestos work was not associated with occupational pleural thickening among men, probably because some with the condition had only short‐term exposure to asbestos. Pulmonary diffusing capacity was lower in those with occupational pleural thickening, taking smoking into account. These results suggest that individuals in the general population who have occupational pleural thickening are at risk for some of the health consequences of asbestos work, including lung cancer, even if they were not career asbestos workers.