Asbestos Puts Shipbreaking Workers at Risk for Many Cancers

This study was one of the few that involved only "shipbreaking," which is the dismantling of old ships for salvage or scrap. It also examined cancers beyond mesothelioma, a cancer caused almost exclusively by inhalation or ingestion of asbestos. The study, published in the on-line medical journal PLOS One, was linked to the Taiwan Cancer Registry and involved 4,227 workers from the 1985 Kaohsiung Shipbreaking Workers Union who belonged to the Labor Insurance Program. They were followed until 2008. There were 940 deaths and 436 cancer cases reported. Their numbers were compared to a control group of 22,135 who worked elsewhere. Researchers from the National Health Research Institute and three universities in Taiwan participated in the study. Asbestos Leads to Many Cancers "Shipbreaking workers had a significant percentage difference of cancer in comparison with matched-cohort," the authors concluded. "Overall, cancer also was seen in a dose-dependent relationship with asbestos exposure." The study revealed that shipbreakers had a 9.9 percent chance of a cancer diagnosis, compared to 6.7 percent for those in the control group. They also were diagnosed at a younger age, 54.5 years old, compared with 57 years for the control group. The high rates of cancer incidence beyond mesothelioma were startling. Shipbreakers were 2.31 times more likely to be diagnosed with esophageal cancer, 1.6 times more likely with liver and bile duct cancer and 3.08 times more likely to get cancer of th...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Research & Clinical Trials Source Type: news