American College of Chest Physicians Agree On What Constitues An Asbestos Related Disease
By: Chris Placitella @ May 28, 2009
There is a raging debate now for decades in asbestos cases concerning what kinds of cancers are asbestos related. Today the American College of Chest Physicians weighed in on that debate. In an article published in the June issue of Chest the College indicated: interquartile range
Executive Summary
Outcome:
32 statements and formed the basis for this
document. These statements included agreement
on the associations between asbestos exposure
and the development of radiographic
pleural or parenchymal abnormalities, clinical
associations between exposure based on a good
environmental and occupational history and the
development of disease, diagnostic utility of
high-resolution CT scan of the chest, as well as
increased risk of bronchogenic carcinoma and
documented asbestos exposure even without
documentation of asbestos fibers in respiratory
tissue of the patient. Consensus was not attained
regarding nine statements; these statements
included questions of utility regarding
chest radiographs and high-resolution CT scan
of the chest, the relationship between asbestos
exposure and pleural plaques, and the extent of
risk for the development of lung cancer in the
face of asbestos exposure.
Consensus was reached on 23 of the
Validation:
by the authors, the ACCP Occupational
and Environmental Medicine NetWork Steering
Committee, the ACCP Health and Science
Policy Committee, and the Executive Committee
of the ACCP Board of Regents.
Consensus opinions were reviewed
Sponsors:
Board of Alberta.
The ACCP and the Workers’ Compensation
In the chart referenced in the article there is agreement on the following point:
15 In an asbestos-exposed worker without asbestosis and with lung cancer, the
recognition of asbestosis among coworkers with similar exposures is sufficient
to attribute the worker’s lung cancer to asbestos exposure
8 1 0.0037
17 Workers who have significant asbestos exposure (but who do not have asbestosis)
are at increased risk of bronchogenic carcinoma
Downloaded from
www.chestjournal.org on June 4, 2009
CT; IQR
