Asbestos Report: Lung Disease Surveillance Report (Continued)

Read the highlights in the CDC’s Work-Related Lung Disease Surveillance Report. This section continued with the report’s focus on asbestos exposure.

• Based on a large subset of the national data for which decedents’ usual occupation and industry information was available, the construction industry accounted for one-fourth of decedents with asbestosis from 1990 through 1999. Apart from construction, asbestosis deaths were reported in a wide range of industries, with no particular industry predominating. Similarly, no one occupation emerged as being particularly common, though the most frequently listed occupational group was plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters.
• From 1990 to 1999, decedents whose death certificate indicated that they worked in the miscellaneous nonmetallic mineral and stone products industry or the ship and boat building and repairing industry had proportionate asbestosis mortality more than 15 times higher than that of all industries combined.
• From 1990 to 1999, decedents whose death certificate indicated that they were insulation workers or boilermakers had proportionate asbestosis mortality 20 times higher than that in all occupations combined.
• Hospital discharges associated with asbestosis have been rising rapidly between 1995 and 2000.
• Data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) indicate a trend towards lower exposure levels from 1979 to 1999, concomitant with mandated reductions in the OSHA permissible exposure limit (PEL).
• For the period 1990 to 1999, less than 5% of the MSHA and OSHA asbestos exposures exceeded the recommended exposure limit (REL). The miscellaneous nonmetallic mineral and stone products industry, which had the highest proportionate mortality ratio (PMR) for asbestosis, also had the highest geometric mean exposure and the highest percent of exposures exceeding the PEL and REL (26% and 41%, respectively).

Courtesy of the CDC.

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