title: [A comprehensive review of literature to investigate development of global knowledge and consensus on asbestos carcinogenicity: up to the report and recommendations by UICC Working Group in 1964].
abstract: This author comprehensively reviewed the literature on asbestos carcinogenicity up to the Report and Recommendations by Union Internationale Contra Cancrum (UICC) Working Group on asbestos and cancer in 1964. The first cases of mesothelioma and lung cancer in necropsied patients with asbestosis were reported in 1933 and 1934, respectively. After that, various studies examining the association between each of the diseases and asbestos exposure had been carried out until the meeting of the UICC Working Group: case report studies, case series studies, prevalence studies, historical cohort studies, and case-control studies. Newly reported studies including experimental studies in that meeting all supported the association. These findings on asbestos and cancer correspond well with Hill's criteria, which were just then advocated for evaluating causality epidemiologically. The Report and Recommendations by the Working Group concluded, "There is evidence of an association between exposure to asbestos and malignant neoplasia." and "The types of tumors ... are ... (1) carcinoma of the lungs, and (2) diffuse mesothelioma of the pleura and peritoneum." This author considers that the causal association between lung cancer or mesothelioma and asbestos was established at the meeting of UICC Working Group in 1964, not by the report on asbestos carcinogenicity in ILO (International Labour Organization) or IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) expert meetings in 1972, as the Japanese government announced. The amount of asbestos import in Japan doubled from 130,000 to 280,000 tons annually from 1964 to 1972. The government should have recognized the global knowledge on asbestos carcinogenicity in 1964; the amount of asbestos import could have been reduced greatly.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Nara Medical University School of Medicine. knorio@naramed-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Norio
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kurumatani
mesh_terms: D001194:Asbestos / Q000633:toxicity*; D002273:Carcinogens; D006801:Humans; D007390:International Agencies; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology; D008654:Mesothelioma / Q000209:etiology
chemical_list: D002273:Carcinogens; D001194:Asbestos