Asbestos Lung Disease Report: Data Limitations (Continued)

Read the report from the CDC regarding the lung diseases associated with exposure to asbestos and other carcinogens. This section continues the discussion of the data limitations noted in the final report. Exposure to asbestos is known to cause serious diseases such as mesothelioma, asbestos-related lung cancer and asbestosis.

Although respiratory diseases other than the pneumoconioses can be caused by occupational exposure to respiratory hazards, it is generally unreasonable to assume an automatic occupational etiology because of the strong influence of nonoccupational factors. As a result, readers will note that the types of mortality tables presented in this report differ depending on the specific disease. More comprehensive tables are presented for those diseases that are highly specific for occupational etiology, while a more limited approach is used for diseases that are less likely to be caused solely by occupational exposure.

Individuals affected by chronic diseases with long latency have much more time to change residences prior to death than individuals affected by acute diseases with short latency. Thus, state of residence at death does not necessarily represent the location of a decedent’s occupational exposure, even for a death that results directly from occupational respiratory disease.

Readers are reminded that only about half the states provide data on usual industry and occupation of decedents which meet the National Center for Health Statistics’ quality criteria for the national death data files used to develop many of the tables presented in this report.

Apparent differences in mortality rates may reflect, in part or in whole, geographical as well as temporal changes in employment patterns affecting the number of workers at risk to various respiratory hazards. Denominators used to calculate mortality rates presented in this report are based on general population estimates for the location (e.g., national, state, or county) and for the years in which the deaths occurred. The resulting rates have clear public health significance. However, as suggested by some very high proportionate mortality ratios presented in this report for specific industrial and occupational groups, national and state-specific rates typically represent a dilution of very high mortality among exposed groups of workers by very low mortality within the general population that is not significantly exposed.

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Asbestos and lung cancer
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Asbestos attorney