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

Non-occupational exposure to asbestos and risk of pleural mesothelioma: review and meta-analysis

“…However, because household exposures are generally not equivalent to neighbourhood exposures, the remaining analysis considered these two exposure scenarios separately (excluding one study that had mixed neighbourhood and environmental exposures combined) 23. When stratified by asbestos exposure type, the meta-RR for household exposure was 5.4 and statistically significant (95% CI 2.6 to 11.2).…”

Pleural neoplastic pathology

“…It is therefore a rare neoplasm. Almost eighty seven percent (87.3%) of male cases and 64.8% of female cases are attributable to asbestos and they typically show a long latency period of few decades [7,11]. Asbestos fibers that reach the pleura after inhalation interact with mesothelial cells and inflammatory cells initiating prolonged tissue damage, repair and inflammation, which finally lead to carcinogenesis of MPM via unknown mechanisms [12].…”

Year in review 2014: basic science and epidemiology

“…The first, from Australia,42 confirmed our belief that the risks of the disease in relation to asbestos level off some 40 or 50 years after exposure, although there are by then precious few people to benefit. The second, from France,43 addressed the very difficult but crucial question of why in a high proportion of women it is so difficult to attribute the disease to asbestos exposure. There is growing concern that the explanation lies in there having been sufficient amphibole exposure in European domestic environments to pose a real risk; if this is true, then the implications are very serious indeed.…”