THE EFFECTS AND CONTROL OF DISEASES ASSOCIATED WITH EXPOSURE TO ASBESTOS IN A NAVAL DOCKYARD

Abstract

A review of the literature relating to the diseases associated with exposure to asbestos is followed by a description of processes involving materials containing asbestos, and the men employed, in HJ Dockyard, Devonport. The development of preventive measures is explained, and details are given of the precautionary methods which have been introduced as a direct result of the present survey. An account is presented of an extensive survey of the dust concentrations occurring in most of the processes involving asbestos materials in the Dockyard. This survey shows the degree of risk to which men have probably been exposed in the past, and explains how many men, not previously thought to have been at risk, have been exposed to high dust concentrations. A detailed study of the clinical, radiological and physiological changes occurring in the men exposed to asbestos is described, and this is followed by a proportional mortality study of the lung and gastro-intestinal neoplasms occurring in Plymouth males. The report concludes with a general discussion of. the data.