Chrysotile, tremolite and fibrogenicity

Recently published analyses have shown that the risks of mesothelioma and lung cancer in Quebec chrysotile miners and millers were related to estimated level of fibrous tremolite in the mines where they had worked. An analysis has therefore been made of radiographic changes in men who in 1965 were employed by companies in Thetford Mines where the same question could be examined for fibrogenicity. Of 294 men who met the necessary requirements, 129 had worked in six centrally located mines, where the tremolite content was thought to be high, 81 in 10 peripheral mines where it was thought to be low and 84 in both. The median prevalence of small parenchymal opacities (> or = 1/0) in chest radiographs read by six readers was higher among men ever than never employed in the central mines (13.6% against 7.4%), despite the fact that the mean cumulative exposure was lower in the former (430 mpcf.y vs 520 mpcf.y). After accounting by logistic regression for cigarette smoking, age, smoking-age interaction and cumulative exposure, the adjusted odds ratio for central mine employment was 2.44 (95% lower bound: 1.06). Together with other surveys of asbestos miners and millers, this study suggests that amphibole fibres, including tremolite, are more fibrogenic than chrysotile, perhaps to the same extent that they are carcinogenic, though the data available were not sufficient to address the latter question.