A. Churg et B. Stevens, ENHANCED RETENTION OF ASBESTOS FIBERS IN THE AIRWAYS OF HUMAN SMOKERS, American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 151(5), 1995, pp. 1409-1413
Citations number
27
Categorie Soggetti
Emergency Medicine & Critical Care","Respiratory System
To determine whether cigarette smoke increases the pulmonary retention
of asbestos, we compared the asbestos-fiber burden in the airway muco
sa of six cigarette smokers who had received heavy occupational asbest
os exposure with that in a group of six subjects with similar exposure
who were never smokers. The groups were matched in terms of age, sex,
years of exposure, and mean parenchymal amosite burden. We found that
the concentration of amosite in airway mucosa was significantly eleva
ted (by approximately sixfold) in smokers (p < 0.02). Chrysotile paren
chymal burdens were statistically similar in both groups, but the chry
sotile airway burden was again higher (by approximately 50-fold) in sm
okers (p < 0.006). There were no differences in airway or parenchymal
tremolite burdens between the two groups. Fibers of all three types of
asbestos recovered from the airway mucosa or parenchyma of smokers we
re shorter than fibers recovered from nonsmokers, an observation in ac
cord with experimental data suggesting that cigarette smoke leads to r
etention of shorter fibers. These findings indicate that cigarette smo
king causes enhanced accumulation of both amosite and chrysotile in th
e airway mucosa. This process may play a role in potentiating the path
ologic effects of asbestos.