Exposure-response analysis of recent epidemiological data: Proposed risk based occupational exposure limits for various mineral types of asbestos

Abstract

During the last few decades, numerous studies have investigated the incidence of mesothelioma among asbestos-exposed populations. Despite significant differences in the potency of various asbestos fiber types to cause mesothelioma, fiber-specific occupational exposure limits (OELs) based on these data are not available. This paper uses results from 14 epidemiological studies to model the exposure-response for fibers, estimate benchmark doses, and propose fiber-specific OELs. Extrapolation of these benchmark doses suggests that the cumulative lifetime exposure (i.e., dose) that corresponds to a theoretical 1 in 1000 risk of mesothelioma death (pleural and peritoneal combined) were approximately 0.3, 2, 10, and 100 f/cc-years for crocidolite, amosite, textile chrysotile, and non-textile chrysotile fibers, respectively. While the proposed estimates are expected to overpredict the risk, they can serve as conservative values to protect the health of workers potentially exposed to commercial asbestos. From this, we propose occupational exposure limits of 0.01, 0.05, 0.2, and 2 f/cc for each mineral type (crocidolite, amosite, textile chrysotile, and non-textile chrysotile fibers), respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first proposal for separate occupational exposure limits based on the epidemiology of each mineral type of fibers since the ACGIH made such a proposal in 1978.