In conjunction with drafting comprehensive legislation concerning compensation for health effects related to asbestos exposure (the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Act), the Senate Committee on the Judiciary directed the Institute of Medicine to assemble the Committee on Asbestos: Selected Health Effects. This committee was charged with addressing whether asbestos exposure is causally related to adverse health consequences in addition to asbestosis, mesothelioma, and lung cancer. Asbestos: Selected Cancers presents the committee's comprehensive distillation of the peer-reviewed scientific and medical literature regarding association between asbestos and colorectal, laryngeal, esophageal, pharyngeal, and stomach cancers. Table of Contents


Front Matter
Summary
1 Introduction
2 Committee's Approach to Its Charge and Methods Used in Evaluation
3 Background Information on Asbestos
4 Exposure and Disposition
5 Biological Aspects of Asbestos Related Diseases
6 Description of Epidemiologic Studies Included in Evidentiary Dataset
7 Pharyngeal Cancer and Asbestos
8 Laryngeal Cancer and Asbestos
9 Esophageal Cancer and Asbestos
10 Stomach Cancer and Asbestos
11 Colorectal Cancer and Asbestos
12 Summary and Recommendations
APPENDIX A Agendas of Public Meetings Held by the Committee on Asbestos: Selected Health Effects
APPENDIX B Lineage and Design Properties of Studies on Cohorts Informative for Selected Cancers
APPENDIX C Description of Case-Control Studies of All Selected Cancers as Related to Exposure to Asbestos
APPENDIX D Cohort Results Tables
APPENDIX E Case-Control Results Tables
APPENDIX F Initial Analyses of Available Data Concerning Cancers of Colon and/or Rectum and Asbestos Exposure
APPENDIX G Committee on Asbestos: Selected Health Effects