Diffuse Mesothelioma of the Pleura and Asbestos

Patients with Mesothelioma of the Pleura.-Occupational histories were obtained from the patients themselves or, if the patients had died, from friends and neighbours. Including those previously reported, 45 cases of mesothelioma of the pleura had been diagnosed in Belfast by the time this study was completed. Only 42 were included in the analysis because three of the early patients had died more than 15 years previously and no details were available. Control Patients.-Occupational histories were obtained from matched controls selected from the records of the department of pathology. If diagnosis of mesothelioma of the pleura in the propositus had been made by biopsy the paired control was selected as that patient of the same sex and within 1 year of age whose name appeared closest to the name of the on 16 July