title: Biopersistence, fiber length, and cancer risk assessment for inhaled fibers.
abstract: We briefly review the evidence that the carcinogenic risk posed by inhaled fibers depends principally on the lung burden of long fibers. We use a deposition clearance model to generate time-dependent lung burdens in rats of a dozen long fibers for various exposure concentrations. Together with a previously estimated potency factor for long fibers, we use the generated lung burdens to estimate risks of lung cancer associated with inhaled fibers in rats. Over a broad range of exposure concentrations, excess risk is a linear function of exposure concentration. Excess risk of lung cancer is also a linear function of weighted half-life for fibers for which the weighted half-life is short compared to the life span of the rat. We propose an approach to estimating human lung cancer risk associated with inhaled fibers from animal studies.
authors.affiliation: Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98109, USA. smoolgav@fhcrc.org
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Moolgavkar
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Turim
mesh_terms: D000280:Administration, Inhalation; D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000633:toxicity*; D000818:Animals; D001822:Body Burden; D015197:Carcinogenicity Tests / Q000379:methods; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D008168:Lung / Q000737:chemistry; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000737:chemistry; D019016:Mineral Fibers / Q000633:toxicity*; D023421:Models, Animal; D010316:Particle Size; D051381:Rats; D011916:Rats, Inbred F344; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D019016:Mineral Fibers