Reply: Comment on ‘Estimating the asbestos-related lung cancer burden from mesothelioma mortality’

Lung cancer: Removing toxic dust from our environment

“…It is important to hear from the authors if the number of mesotheliomas diagnosed in the same period might have shown the reverse. If the number of lung cancers detected by LDCT is taken as surrogate for the potency of asbestos fibres, mixed fibres (crocidolite and chrysotile) might have caused more cancers than crocidolite and it is tempting to attribute this to the strong association of chrysotile exposure with the occurrence of lung cancer 12–15 …”

“…If the number of lung cancers detected by LDCT is taken as surrogate for the potency of asbestos fibres, mixed fibres (crocidolite and chrysotile) might have caused more cancers than crocidolite and it is tempting to attribute this to the strong association of chrysotile exposure with the occurrence of lung cancer. [12][13][14][15] Hypotheses about the carcinogenicity of asbestos become even more complex, when the interaction between smoking and asbestos exposure is considered. The smallest fragments of asbestos belong to the 'fine dust' (PM2.5) category.…”