Asbestos Air Pollution: Description of a Mesothelioma Cluster Due to Residential Exposure from an Asbestos Cement Factory

Luigi Vimercati, Domenica Cavone, Maria Celeste Delfino, Antonio Caputi, Luigi De Maria, Stefania Sponselli, Vincenzo Corrado, Giovanni Maria Ferri and Gabriella Serio
Additional contact information
Luigi Vimercati: Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine, Occupational Medicine “B. Ramazzini”, University of Bari Medical School, 11 G, Cesare Square, 70124 Bari, Italy
Domenica Cavone: Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine, Occupational Medicine “B. Ramazzini”, University of Bari Medical School, 11 G, Cesare Square, 70124 Bari, Italy
Maria Celeste Delfino: Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine, Occupational Medicine “B. Ramazzini”, University of Bari Medical School, 11 G, Cesare Square, 70124 Bari, Italy
Antonio Caputi: Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine, Occupational Medicine “B. Ramazzini”, University of Bari Medical School, 11 G, Cesare Square, 70124 Bari, Italy
Luigi De Maria: Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine, Occupational Medicine “B. Ramazzini”, University of Bari Medical School, 11 G, Cesare Square, 70124 Bari, Italy
Stefania Sponselli: Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine, Occupational Medicine “B. Ramazzini”, University of Bari Medical School, 11 G, Cesare Square, 70124 Bari, Italy
Vincenzo Corrado: Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine, Occupational Medicine “B. Ramazzini”, University of Bari Medical School, 11 G, Cesare Square, 70124 Bari, Italy
Giovanni Maria Ferri: Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine, Occupational Medicine “B. Ramazzini”, University of Bari Medical School, 11 G, Cesare Square, 70124 Bari, Italy
Gabriella Serio: Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation (DETO), Pathology Division, University of Bari Medical School, 11 G, Cesare Square, 70124 Bari, Italy

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 8, 1-17

Abstract: The study describes a cluster of 71 malignant mesothelioma cases among Bari residents without asbestos exposure other than residential exposure. This small cohort, as expected, was composed of a majority of females (56.34%) with a M/F ratio of 0.8, ages ≤ 65 years old (52.11%) and the epithelioid morphological type (78.87%). Sixty-four subjects (90.14%) lived between 10 m and 1000 m from the asbestos cement factory (Fibronit), and the latency length was longer than 55 years for 25 subjects (35.21%). The adjusted risk (adjusted OR) of observing the epithelial form of mesothelioma among subjects living at small distances from Fibronit was high (OR = 1.870 (0.353–9.905)) for people living 550–1000 m from the site and for those living less than 550 m from the site (OR = 1.470 (0.262–8.248)). Additionally, the subjects with a high length of exposure showed a relevant risk of epithelioid mesothelioma both for 21–40 years of exposure (OR = 2.027 (0.521–7.890)) and more than 40 years of exposure (OR = 2.879 (0.651–12.736)). All of the estimates were high but not significant because this transitional study has a typically low power. The adjustment for latency showed the same trend. Using detailed information collected by the regional mesothelioma registry, this study provided evidence of a continuing health impact of the Fibronit asbestos cement factory in Bari on the resident population.

Keywords: asbestos; asbestos cement factory; mesothelioma; air pollution; residential–environmental exposure; southern Italy; mesothelioma register (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/8/2636/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/8/2636/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:8:p:2636-:d:344534

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().