| |
|
Asbestos-related lung cancer
Summary
- There are around 50 to 80 new cases of disablement each year
due to asbestos-related lung cancer, although this figure is likely
to be a substantial under-estimate.
Scale of disease including trends
Lung cancer as a prescribed disease in connection with asbestos
exposure has consistently given rise to between 50-80 new cases of
assessed disablement each year from 1987-1996. In 1997 the number fell
to 26, rising to around 40 cases per year over the next 3 years, 53 in
2001 and 57 in 2002. Reports from the SWORD and OPRA schemes
indicate higher numbers, although these are nevertheless of a similar
magnitude (126 cases in 2000, 214 in 2001 and an estimated 85 in 2002,
though some of these lung cancers may have been caused by occupational
agents other than asbestos). It should be noted that in April 2002 a
new method of collecting statistical information on claims and
assessments was introduced, making data more accurate.
There is evidence to suggest that these figures
substantially underestimate the true extent of the disease. In heavily
exposed populations there have typically been at least as many,
sometimes up to five times as many, excess lung cancers as there have
been mesotheliomas. The ratio depends on a range of factors - the most
important of which are type of asbestos, level of exposure, age at
exposure and smoking - and so one cannot be too precise about the
overall ratio. A reasonable rule of thumb would be to allow for one or
two extra lung cancers for each mesothelioma. Smoking is thought to
interact with asbestos exposure in the causation of lung cancer. Thus
going forward in time the ratio of lung cancers to mesotheliomas is
likely to fall, because the mesotheliomas will increasingly be
generated by low exposure levels (meaning fewer lung cancers per
mesothelioma) and because smoking levels have fallen since the 1960s.
Source: HSE Statistics |
|
| |
|
