NYC-WTC_000195164

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

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Excess ovarian cancer was found among female asbestos workers (HSDB, 2001). L. A meta-analysis of 30 published studies on asbestos and colorectal cancer found an overall relative risk of 0.99; this result does not support the idea that asbestos is related to colorectal cancer (Weiss, 1995). M. In a large mortality study on 4,943,566 persons, mortality ratios were slightly increased for esophageal, gastric, and colorectal cancer for occupations with asbestos exposure (Kang et al, 1997). N. A slight increase in standard incidence ratio for colorectal cancer was found in Danish asbestos cement workers (SIR 1.23, 95 percent CI 1.01 -1.48). The SIR increased to 1.47 with a latency period of 15 years (Raffn et al, 1996). O. Among men newly diagnosed with adenocarcinoma of the lung, there was an increased prevalence of k-ras mutations among those with a history of occupational exposure to asbestos, compared with patients without asbestos exposure. The presence of k-ras mutation and asbestos exposure was independent of asbestosis, as determined by chest radiographs (Nelson et al, 1999). P. In a histological study on 414 consecutive cases of lung carcinoma, approximately 60 percent of the male cases could be attributed to asbestos (Bianchi et al, 1999). Q. Occupational exposure to asbestos was not a factor in kidney cancer, in a meta-analysis of 37 cohorts (Sali & Boffetta, 2000). R. Asbestos can be transferred to the ovary. Asbestos fibers have been found at significant levels in ovarian tissue of 13 women with household exposure. Counts were as high as >1 million/g wet weight in exposed women. These findings are consistent with reports linking asbestos with ovarian cancer (Heller et al, 1996). Asbestos was one of the risk factors found for incidence of ovarian cancer in a study on 892,591 Finnish women (Vasama-Neuvonen et al, 1999). S. Asbestos fibers have been found in lymph nodes of 13 out of 21 non-occupationally exposed individuals, at appreciably higher levels than in the lung. The authors suggest that lymph nodes may be a better indicator of lifetime exposure to asbestos than lung tissue (Dodson et al, 2000).

6.0 GENETIC EFFECTS A. Asbestos has been widely studied for possible genetic effects in a variety of systems. Its genetic effects have been reviewed (Daniel, 1983). B. Asbestos can damage DNA, and this damage can be enhanced several-fold in the presence of peroxides (Mahmood et al, 1993). The extent of damage in the presence of peroxides correlated with the carcinogenic potential of different forms of asbestos (Mahmood et al, 1994). 1. Crocidolite fibers induced oxidative damage in DNA, in the form of 8- hydroxydeoxyguanosine, in a dose-dependent manner in cultured human-hamster hybrid cells, via reactive oxygen species (Xu et al, 1999). C. Ferrous iron complexed with asbestos can be oxidized to the ferric state by peroxide, generating free radicals, and the amount of DNA damage induced by asbestos is proportional to the amount of surface-complexed iron (Ohio et al, 1994). The iron in ferruginous bodies can also induce DNA damage, if it is in the reduced (ferrous) form (Lund et al, 1994). 1. A two- to four-fold increase in double-stranded DNA breaks was seen in lymphocytes of persons occupationally exposed to asbestos, compared with those of non-exposed persons (Marczynski et al, 1994).

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