The Health of Chrysotile Asbestos Mine and Mill Workers of Quebec

Abstract

The results of studies of respiratory symptoms and function, roentgenographic changes, and mortality in relation to dust exposure in the Quebec chrysotile industry, which has employed some 28,000 workers, are brought together and their implications for control examined. Breathlessness on exercise, diminished inspiratory capacity, parenchymal and pleural changes, and respiratory disease mortality were related to dust exposure and to each other. Respiratory cancer was also related to dust exposure. The overall excess of deaths from respiratory cancers, including five with malignant mesothelioma, was at most 50% above expectation, based on age-specific rates for Quebec and the mining region. If safety standards are set, they should be based on epidemiological evidence. From these data for the chrysotile producing industry of Quebec, a resonable figure, based on a 1% risk of acquiring clinically significant disease, would lie between 2 to 4 million particles per cubic foot, calculated for a working life of 50 years. In the absence of epidemiological findings based on fiber counts and lack of a satisfactory means of conversion, particle counts should continue to be used for control in this industry.