Asbestos-Laden Ovens May Pose Risk to Bakers
Tuesday November 6 1:26 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Professional bakers and pastry cooks working with industrial ovens that contain asbestos may be at increased risk of developing respiratory tract cancers, according to the results of a new study from Italy.
Lead author Dr. Valeria Ascoli of La Sapienza University in Rome and colleagues evaluated patient information for 226 men and women diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM), a cancer of the respiratory tract.
Eight cases of the cancer were identified in people who worked as professional bakers, biscuit cooks and pastry cooks, and four of these patients reported being exposed to asbestos and other fibrous components in ovens, the report indicates.
"The occurrence of MPM in bakers and pastry cooks that we have reported here is, to our knowledge, a new finding,'' Ascoli and colleagues write in the October issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.
"So far, these workers have been associated with increased risk for respiratory tract cancer being potentially exposed to as-yet-undefined hazardous agents prevalent in small/retail bakeries,'' they add.
The researchers speculate that the development of respiratory tract cancer might be attributed to the presence of uncovered asbestos in ovens.
Asbestos, which has been used as an insulator in industrial baking ovens for decades, was banned "for trading and use in the early 1990s'' in Italy, the authors note. However, ''field-investigations in mid-1990s revealed similar equipment still in use,'' the researchers report.
Ascoli and colleagues recommend that old ovens be inspected to identify and seal or remove any asbestos-containing material.
Since this is the first study to relate asbestos in ovens to bakers' cancer risk, the investigators caution that more studies are needed to validate their findings.
Malignant pleural mesothelioma can appear years after exposure to asbestos. Although there are now strict controls on asbestos use in the US, many workers were exposed to the substance in the past. The disease does not respond to surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy.
*** POSTED NOVEMBER 7, 2001 ***