Asbestos workers at risk from heart disease
FRANCE: Already facing heightened risks of cancer, asbestos workers
also run a greater danger of heart disease and stroke, a British study
published on Tuesday said.
Researchers looked into more than 15,000 deaths that occurred among
nearly 99,000 workers in the British asbestos industry between 1971 and
2005.
Almost 4,200 deaths were caused by heart disease and more than 1,000
by a stroke, particularly among women.
Male asbestos workers were 63 percent likelier to die of a stroke and
39 percent likelier to die of heart disease when compared with the
general public, even when smoking was taken into account.
The corresponding figures for female asbestos workers were 100
percent and 89 percent.
The workers were part of a survey set up in 1971 to monitor the
long-term health of people in the asbestos industry.
Most of the male workers had been employed in removing asbestos, and
the female workers were generally employed in manufacturing that
included asbestos.
The investigation, led by Anne-Helen Harding of Britain's Health and
Safety Laboratory, appears in the Journal of Occupational and
Environmental Medicine. Asbestos was widely used as a fire retardant
until the late 20th century when it began to be outlawed for causing a
form of cancer called mesothelioma and a lung disease called asbestosis.
AFP
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