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Past Asbestos Exposure in Rolling Stock Manufacturing in the Absence of Environmental Monitoring: An Original Method
Stefano Silvestri1, Cesare Ciapini, Andrea Innocenti
1From the Università del Piemonte Orientale (Collaborator), Novara, Italy (Silvestri); Former Occupational Health Unit of Pistoia-Azienda Sanitaria Toscana Centro, Firenze, Italy (Ciapini, Innocenti).
Objective:
The aim of this study is the reconstruction of asbestos exposure in absence of environmental monitoring data, to use the results in a cohort study of railway rolling stock workers.
Methods:
To reconstruct past exposures, the production data (number of rolling stock and asbestos content) and working methods were reconstructed with former employees and company documentation, literature data, and author expertise.
Results:
The result of the work is a job/exposure matrix from 1956 to 1979, when sprayed asbestos was used as insulator of the metal bodies. Annual exposure estimate varies from 0.08 to 4.9 fb/mL depending on the specific jobs. Thirty-one mesotheliomas with occupational exposure, one with environmental and one with family exposures, were identified.
Conclusions:
The originality of the study consists on the use of company production data to establish frequency duration of asbestos exposure.
