Pattern Recognition in the Context of an Asbestos Cancer Threshold Study

Tarter, Michael E.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9464-8_15

Cited by 10 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…The first epidemiologic study to appear after this discovery was conducted in Duluth by Mason et al. In 1974 (1 (4) and Meigs et al in 1980 (5) were prompted by the possibility of studying reliable cancer incidence data over a 35-year period through the Connecticut Tumor Registry and linking these data with information collected on asbestos-cement pipe studies done by the U.S. EPA (10) were motivated by the fact that several drinking water supplies come from aquifers or are stored in reservoirs that are exposed to serpentine, the parent rock form of chrysotile asbestos. The single unpublished epidemiologic study of cancer incidence conducted in Utah by Sadler et al in 1981 (11) was based upon the fact that several Utah communities were known to have used predominantly asbestos-cement pipe for periods exceeding 20 years.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Review of Epidemiologic Studies Related to Ingested Asbestos

Marsh¹

1983

Environmental Health Perspectives

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Thirteen epidemiologic studies of ingested asbestos conducted in five areas of the United States and Canada were reviewed and evaluated for the definitiveness and applicability regarding the development of ambient water quality standards. One or more studies found male or female associations between asbestos in water supplies and cancer mortality (or incidence) due to neoplasms of the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, colon, rectum, gallbladder, pancreas, peritoneum, lungs, pleura, prostate, kidneys, brain, and thyroid, and also due to leukemia. Several methodologic weaknesses and limitations were found in each study, leading to the determination that no individual study or aggregation of studies exist that would establish risk levels from ingested asbestos. A binomial probability analysis of the eight independent studies suggested that, while the level of male-female agreement was generally low, the number of observed positive associations in males and females for neoplasms of the esophagus, stomach, pancreas, and prostate was unlikely to have been generated by chance factors alone, and thus, may have a biological basis related to ingested asbestos. Cancers of the small intestine and leukemia were implicated to a lesser degree in this analysis. The patterns of integrated findings for most gastrointestinal cancers were somewhat consistent with patterns observed among asbestos-exposed occupational groups, whereas the patterns found for pancreatic cancer, kidney cancer, and leukemia were not consistent. It was recommended that the integrated ecologic data to date be used to generate a rough priority of specific etiologic hypotheses that should be tested in the original settings or in independent study populations using studies designed at the more definitive individual level, such as case-control studies. The Bay Area (California) and Puget Sound (Washington) were deemed to be the existing study areas most suitable for future research.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Review of Epidemiologic Studies Related to Ingested Asbestos

Marsh¹

1983

Environmental Health Perspectives

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“…A number of epidemiologic evaluations conducted in seven areas of the United States and Canada examined the association between drinking water supplies containing asbestos and cancer mortality (8,(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51)(52)(53)(54).…”

Section: Epidemiologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Tarter et al (48,49) analyzed the available waterborne asbestos concentration levels and digestive system cancer data from the San Francisco Bay Area to address interrelationships between these variables and population density. They observed that higher waterborne asbestos concentration levels and higher incidence rates of digestive system cancer were reported in the densely populated census tracts of the city of San Francisco compared to the non-San Francisco census tract (49).…”

Section: Bay Area Californiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Report on cancer risks associated with the ingestion of asbestos. DHHS Committee to Coordinate Environmental and Related Programs

1987

Environ Health Perspect

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This report is an assessment of all available literature that pertains to the potential risk of cancer associated with ingestion of asbestos. It was compiled by a working group to assist policy makers in the Department of Health and Human Services determine if adequate information was available for a definitive risk assessment on this potential problem and evaluate if the weight of evidence was sufficient to prioritize this issue for new policy recommendations. The work group considered the basis for concern over this problem, the body of toxicology experiments, the individual epidemiologic studies which have attempted to investigate this issue, and the articles that discuss components of risk assessment pertaining to the ingestion of asbestos. In the report, the work group concluded: 1) that no direct, definitive risk assessment can be conducted at this time; 2) that further epidemiologic investigations will be very costly and only possess sufficient statistical power to detect relatively large excesses in cancers related to asbestos ingestion; and 3) that probably the most pertinent toxicologic experiments relate to resolving the differences in how inhaled asbestos, which is eventually swallowed, is biologically processed by humans, compared to how ingested asbestos is processed. The work group believes that the cancer risk associated with asbestos ingestion should not be perceived as one of the most pressing potential public health hazards facing the nation. However, the work group does not believe that information was sufficient to assess the level of cancer risks associated with the ingestion and therefore, this potential hazard should not be discounted, and ingestion exposure to asbestos should be eliminated whenever possible.

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“…The first involved a commonly used nonparametric approach based on the rank transformation (22), and the second the logarithmic transformation (3). The number 7 shown in the Y axis label of Figure 14 designates the seventh GRAFSTAT data transformation option, normalized rank or score (4).…”

Section: Parametric-nonparametric Hybridsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several publications (2,3) and even a lawsuit involving the State of Connecticut and asbestos pipe producers have resulted in part from the tentative findings of the Cooper study that "a statistical association between asbestos fiber content in drinking water and the incidence of certain cancers in the San Francisco Bay Area has been shown. "…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A graphical analysis of the interrelationships among waterborne asbestos, digestive system cancer and population density.

Tarter¹,

Cooper²,

Freeman³

1983

Environ Health Perspect

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Five statistical procedures were used to partial the correlation between waterborne asbestos and digestive site cancer for the putative effects of population density. These include: analysis based on a data subset with roughly homogeneous population density; standard residual analysis (partial correlation); conditional probability integral transformation; analysis based upon ranked data, and use of logarithmic transformation.Nonparametric regression graphical techniques are applied to examine the nature or shape of the asbestos-cancer dose-response curve. Evidence is presented that suggests that there is considerable difference between analyses involving nonhigh-density tracts and non-San Francisco tracts. Evidence is also presented that the modal-type nonparametric regression curve forks or bifurcates when adjustment is made for population density.

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Pattern Recognition in the Context of an Asbestos Cancer Threshold Study

Cited by 10 publications

References 12 publications

Critical Review of Epidemiologic Studies Related to Ingested Asbestos

Critical Review of Epidemiologic Studies Related to Ingested Asbestos

Report on cancer risks associated with the ingestion of asbestos. DHHS Committee to Coordinate Environmental and Related Programs

A graphical analysis of the interrelationships among waterborne asbestos, digestive system cancer and population density.

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