Toronto • May 28-29, 2010 • Student Day and Workshops: May 27
Paper: Asbestos and mesothelioma in Ontario
Download Presentation PDF:
Day/Time: Saturday at 11:15
Room: Giovanni Room, 2nd Floor
Objectives:
Asbestos has long been recognized as a carcinogen, most strongly linked to mesothelioma and lung cancer. This presentation will provide an overview of asbestos exposure in Ontario, with emphasis on how its use and regulation affects rates of cancer in the province. Current Ontario data will be reviewed with respect to mesothelioma, workplace asbestos exposure, and compensation, and gaps in knowledge and opportunities for action will be identified.
Methods:
Trends in cancer incidence will be presented using age-standardized incidence rates obtained from the Ontario Cancer Registry, and will be linked to asbestos import and export data from the Canadian Minerals Yearbook. Data on compensation filing will be obtained from previous work linking the WSIB Occupational Disease Information and Surveillance System and the Ontario Cancer Registry.
Results:
Despite that asbestos use peaked in the 1960s & 1970s, rates of mesothelioma in Ontario continue to rise. It is not known when the number of new cases per year will begin to slow, though it is anticipated that incidence will peak sometime over the next two decades. In addition, there is a disconnect between the attribution of mesothelioma in men to occupational asbestos exposure and levels of compensation, as only 40% of male mesothelioma patients received workers’ compensation in recent years.
Conclusions:
Additional work needs to be undertaken to estimate when the peak and eventual decline in incidence rates of mesothelioma can be expected based on trends in asbestos use in Ontario and disease latency. The Occupational Cancer Research Centre will contribute to this knowledge gap by undertaking a mesothelioma projections project aiming to forecast rates for the next 50 years.
