Estimating Occupational Exposure to Asbestos in Australia.

Abstract

We read with interest the job-exposure matrix ( JEM) by van Oyen et al. (2015), a study to which we contributed unpublished dust measurements. We wish to make a number of observations regarding the paper. We begin by noting that exposure limits for asbestos were first recommended in Australia well before 1964. In 1945, the State of Victoria adopted a ceiling standard of 5 million particles per cubic foot (mppcf) into regulations (Victoria, 1945), while the 5 mppcf standard was adopted nationally [as an 8-h time-weighted average (TWA)] in 1960 (National Health and Medical Research Council, 1960). The various Australian states adopted regulations based on the membrane filter haphazardly over the 1970s. We agree with the authors that the estimated annual average exposures in AsbJEM appear very low, and that there is some similarity to full-shift exposures that can be found elsewhere in the literature. However, we also take the view that the results of any exposure reconstruction should ‘make sense’ (Armstrong et al., 2009). In our opinion, the exposure estimates for some of the job titles in AsbJEM do not make sense, in that the cumulative exposure for a lifetime of work in some job titles is not consistent with the many cases of asbestos-related disease we have encountered in workers with those job titles. For example, according to AsbJEM: the cumulative exposure for a boilermaker who spent their entire working life in the power supply industry Editorial Note. Letters to the Editor are peer reviewed to ensure that the arguments are reasonable and clearly expressed. However, letters may express a particular opinion rather than a balanced interpretation. Authors of papers commented on are invited to reply, but neither the journal nor peer reviewers should be assumed to support the arguments made.