AboutMesothelioma.Net

The coastal areas of Trieste and Monfalcone in northeastern Italy have a thriving maritime industry and an epidemic of malignant pleural mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs associated with asbestos exposure. The epidemic is not likely to subside anytime soon.

In a recently published study, Italian researchers reviewed the occupations of 811 patients from Trieste and Monfalcone diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma from 1968 through 2008.

More than half of the mesothelioma patients had marine jobs such as shipbuilding or work at the ports, where asbestos was widely used until the late 1970s and not banned until 1992. A number of studies in the United States, Europe and Japan have pointed to a strong link between shipyard work and mesothelioma. For that reason, merchant marines, dock workers as well as Navy veterans are at higher risk of asbestos-related disease.

About 80 percent of the patients, in the Italian study, were initially exposed to asbestos before 1960 and three fourths were exposed to asbestos for 20 years or longer. The researchers noted that while people can develop mesothelioma after short exposure to asbestos, the vast majority of people with mesothelioma have a long history of exposure.

Mesothelioma symptoms often do not appear until many decades after initial exposure, making it difficult to diagnose. In three fourths of the cases the researchers analyzed, the latency period from initial exposure to appearance of symptoms was more than 40 years.

The researchers said the latency period varied markedly by occupational group. For people who worked in shipbuilding, the average latency period was 49 years. For people who worked with asbestos insulation, it was about 35 years.

In the Trieste-Monfalcone area, the vast majority of mesothelioma victims are men who were employed in heavy industries that used asbestos. But some women had second hand exposure to asbestos as well. The researchers identified 34 women who developed mesothelioma after washing the dust-covered work clothes of family members. The average latency period for the people who had domestic exposure was 51 years.

The latency period was generally longer for those who had environmental or second hand exposure to asbestos than for workers who had more intense workplace exposure, the researchers noted.

Limitation on the use of asbestos began in the Italian shipyards in the late 1970s and further restrictions were imposed in the 1980s. Italy banned asbestos in 1992.

The researchers noted the restrictions on asbestos use meant that workers had lower exposure to asbestos in recent decades. But they said they had not observed any lessening of the epidemic of mesothelioma in recent years. They said mesothelioma represented a major health problem in the area.

Researchers at the Center for the Study of Environmental Cancer at the Italian League Against Cancer conducted the study. It was published in the Indian Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine.

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