|
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, concluded that smoking and working around asbestos greatly increased one's chances of becoming ill. "...The lung cancer death rates increased from 11.3 per 100,000 among nonsmokers in the control group to 58.4 among nonsmoking asbestos workers, 122.6 for smokers in the control group, and 601.6 for smoking asbestos workers. The lung cancer relative risk with combined exposure (53.24) is far larger than the sum of individual risks for smoking and asbestos exposure separately, and is quite close to the product of the separate mortality ratios ... together." (Pp. 215 - 216.) In short, smoking and working with asbestos multiplies the death risk rather than adding the two risk factors together. In addition, it appears the more one smokes, or conversely, the more one works around asbestos, the greater the risk (p. 14). |
The result is that it is nearly impossible to segregate out causation. How much of a worker's cancer is caused by smoking and how much by asbestos? "It seems clear that for the active cigarette smoker, there is no safe cigarette and no safe level of cigarette smoking (U.S. DHHS, 1982). Furthermore, recent data ... suggests that repetitive exposure to environmental tobacco smoke may be accompanied by an increased risk of lung cancer, thereby suggesting that the dose-response relationship may extend even to those individuals who do not actively smoke cigarettes ..." (P. 222.) Even a nonsmoking asbestos worker who is exposed to the cigarette smoke of others may be at a multiplied risk of lung cancer. Although the standards for "safe" levels of exposure to asbestos differ depending upon which malady is being considered, medical experts face an extreme challenge in asbestos-related cases |
where cancer could have been caused either by cigarette smoke or asbestos. "A final caution in the determination of a threshold for lung cancer risk secondary to asbestos exposure, and in the use of such a threshold to establish environmental dust standards, is the potential differences between a threshold for lung cancer and one for mesothelioma or other asbestos-related disease. Mesothelioma, which is not associated with cigarette smoking, may occur following exposure to low levels of asbestos, and dust exposure defined as a "safe" level for lung cancer risk may possibly continue to produce an increased risk of mesothelioma" (p. 223.) The Perspective is a periodic publication of Casey, Gerry, Reed & Schenk. It is not intended, nor does it purport to provide legal advice. Before acting on any information contained within The Perspective, you should consult an attorney. (c) 1998-2000 Casey, Gerry, Reed & Schenk. All rights reserved. |