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Document ID (ISN)112331
CIS number 12-0212
Year 2009
Convention or series no. RR 696
Author(s) Peto J., Rake C., Gilham C., Hatch J.
Health and Safety Executive
Title Occupational, domestic and environmental mesothelioma risks in Britain
Bibliographic information HSE Books, P.O. Box 1999, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 2WA, United Kingdom, 2009, x, 63p. Illus. 46 ref.
Internet access Occupational_domestic_[INTERNET_FREE_ACCESS] [in English]
Abstract There are just over 2100 people diagnosed with mesothelioma in the United Kingdom each year with about five times as many cases in men as in women In this study, more than 600 patients with mesothelioma and 1400 healthy people were interviewed to examine United Kingdom rates of the disease linked to different occupations. It was calculated that men born in the 1940s who worked as carpenters for more than 10 years before they reached the age of 30 have a lifetime risk for mesothelioma of about one in 17. For plumbers, electricians and decorators born in the same decade who worked in their trade for more than 10 years before they reached the age of 30, the risk is one in 50 and for other construction workers one in 125. For every case of mesothelioma, asbestos also causes about one case of lung cancer so the overall risk of asbestos related cancer for this particular group of carpenters is about one in 10. The risk was also increased in other industries and the study showed that two-thirds of all British men and one quarter of women had worked in jobs involving potential asbestos exposure at some time in their lives. There was also a small increased risk in those who had lived with someone who had been exposed to asbestos. The risk of mesothelioma for the rest of the United Kingdom population who haven't experienced these occupational exposures is about one in 1000. These apparently-unexposed cases account for 60 per cent of all mesotheliomas in women and 15 per cent in men. This is higher than the overall rate in women in most other countries, suggesting that many of these unexplained cases were caused by unrecognized environmental asbestos exposures which occurred in certain situations because of the widespread use of asbestos during the 1960s and 1970s.
Descriptors (primary) United Kingdom; occupation disease relation; mesothelioma; job-exposure relation; risk factors; frequency rates
Descriptors (secondary) asbestos; carpentry; public OSH institutions; sex-linked differences; plumbing; construction industry; report
Document type E - Books, reports, proceedings
Country / State or ProvinceUnited Kingdom
Subject(s) Occupational pathology
Toxic and dangerous substances
Broad subject area(s) Industries and occupations
Occupational medicine, epidemiology
Chemical safety
Browse category(ies) Cancer and carcinogens
Asbestos
Diseases of the respiratory system (except for pneumoconiosis & similar)
Construction industry and civil engineering
Woodworking industry
Water and sanitation services