ORIGINAL ARTICLES

The mortality of women exposed environmentally and domestically to blue asbestos at Wittenoom, Western Australia

A Reid¹, J Heyworth^1,2, N de Klerk^1,3 and A W Musk^1,4

¹ School of Population Health, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia
² Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia
³ Telethon Institute for Child Health Research and Centre for Child Health Research, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
⁴ Department of Respiratory Medicine, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Nedlands, WA, Australia

Correspondence to:
Alison Reid, Occupational Respiratory Epidemiology, School of Population Health, M431, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia; Alison.Reid{at}uwa.edu.au

Objectives: Knowledge of mortality patterns following exposure to asbestos has been determined mostly from cohort studies of men who were exposed to asbestos in their workplace. Women are more likely to have obtained their asbestos exposure domestically or from their environment.

Methods: 2552 women and girls are documented to have lived in the blue asbestos mining and milling township of Wittenoom between 1943 and 1992 and were not involved in asbestos mining or milling. Quantitative asbestos exposure measurements were derived from periodic dust surveys undertaken in the industry and around the township. Death records were obtained for the period 1950–2004. Standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) were calculated to compare the Wittenoom women’s mortality with that of the Western Australian female population.

Results: There were 425 deaths, including 30 from malignant mesothelioma. There was excess mortality for all causes of death (SMR = 1.13), all neoplasms (SMR = 1.42), symptoms, signs and ill defined conditions (SMR = 6.35), lung cancer (SMR = 2.15) and pneumoconiosis (SMR = 11.8). Mortality from cancer of the ovary (SMR = 1.52), upper aerodigestive cancers (SMR = 2.70) and tuberculosis (SMR = 5.38) was increased but not significantly. The risk of death from mesothelioma was increased, but not significantly, in residents known to have lived with or washed the clothes of an Australian Blue Asbestos Company asbestos worker (HR = 2.67, 95% CI 0.77 to 9.21; HR = 2.61, 95% CI 0.85 to 7.99, respectively).

Conclusion: Women who were former residents of Wittenoom, exposed to asbestos in their environment or in their home, have excess cancer mortality, including mesothelioma, compared with the Western Australian female population.

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This article has been cited by other articles:

• Reid, A, Berry, G, Heyworth, J, de Klerk, N H, Musk, A W (2009). Predicted mortality from malignant mesothelioma among women exposed to blue asbestos at Wittenoom, Western Australia. Occup. Environ. Med. 66: 169-174 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Reid, A., Segal, A., Heyworth, J. S., de Klerk, N. H., Musk, A. W. (2009). Gynecologic and Breast Cancers in Women After Exposure to Blue Asbestos at Wittenoom. Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev. 18: 140-147 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Palmer, K. (2008). Work in Brief. Occup. Environ. Med. 65: i-i [Full Text]