ASBESTOS-RELATED RADIOGRAPHIC ABNORMALITIES IN ELEVATOR CONSTRUCTION WORKERS

Elevator construction workers are exposed to asbestos dust during cons truction and refurbishment work on older buildings. We screened a coho rt of workers, all with greater than 20 yr of employment in the indust ry, with clinical examinations, chest radiography (''B'' reader interp retations), and routine spirometry. Twenty of the 91 workers (22%) had evidence of pleural disease, but none of them had an interstitial pro cess consistent with asbestosis. Of those with pleural thickening, 15 had bilateral circumscribed plaques and five had unilateral plaque for mation. There were no cases of diffuse pleural thickening, benign pleu ral effusions, or mesothelioma identified in our cohort. The differenc e in the mean body mass index of those with pleural abnormalities (29. 18 +/- 3.95) and those without (27.7 +/- 3.86) was not statistically s ignificant (p = 0.135). We conclude that elevator construction workers have an increased risk for the development of asbestos-related pleura l disease.