South American & Italy Impact Asbestos Mesothelioma:Time Series Reconstruction (1997-2016) and Comparison with Incidence by Age and Sex

Abstract

Gustavo Gomez Barbieri*

Background: The use of asbestos is millennial. However, the use of asbestos in South America began in 1930 and peaked in 1960. Understanding how asbestos production has affected the incidence and mortality of pulmonary mesothelioma is critical in the design of public policies in developing countries.

Objectives: this study is aimed at interrupted and deslapse time series of incidence and deaths for mesothelioma in the period 1970-2009 in Italy and comparing South America incidence and mortality data.

Design, Setting and Participants: deaths for pleural cancer and mesothelioma (1997-2016) were recorded by WHO database and Virtas’s levels of asbestos’s. National incidence and mortality data were compared during the overlapping period (1930-2000).

Results: From the analysis of the Latin American Asbestos market, Brazil is the only country whose historical production of asbestos is comparable to that of Italy, having produced 89.7% (2925537 ktons) with respect to the European country, the rest of the South American countries combined produced a 0.25%. Mortality caused by mesothelioma and incident cases with certain diagnosis are overlapping, as are mortality due to pleural cancer other than mesothelioma and mesothelioma incidence with uncertain diagnosis (probable/possible).

Conclusions: this epidemiological analysis of deaths encoded as pleural tumors suggests carefully investigating space- temporal distribution before excluding them could be mesotheliomas. Some new lights have been thrown on the statistical behavior of mesothelioma mortality. Therefore, there is an underestimation and a real non-declaration of asbestos in the South American markets that could explain the mortality and incidences observed.

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