Diffuse Mesothelioma and Exposure to Asbestos Dust in the Merseyside Area

Patients suffering from pulmonary asbestosis show a high incidence of malignant-tumour formation. Particular attention has been given in the past to the occurrence of carcinoma of the lung. Doll (1955) assessed the average risk among men employed for 20 or more years at one asbestos factory as 10 times that among the general population. More recently a close association has been found to exist between exposure to asbestos and the development of diffuse mesothelioma. Wagner et al. (1960) described 33 examples of diffuse pleural meso thelioma from the North Western Cape Province of South Africa. All but one of the patients had been exposed to asbestos and many had worked in the local asbestos mines. Later, Wagner (1962) described 75 cases of diffuse pleural meso thelioma together with three examples of diffuse peritoneal mesothelioma. Occupational or environmental exposure to asbestos had occurred in all but two of the patients. In the present investigation a study has been made of 17 examples of diffuse mesothelioma occurring in the Merseyside area. In each case evidence has been sought of exposure to asbestos dust.