The MJA/MDA National Award
AMA NATIONAL CONFERENCE 2012
A paper raising the alarm about a surge in cases of the fatal disease, malignant mesothelioma, among home renovators has won The Medical Journal of Australia/MDA National Award for the best original research published in the MJA.
The paper – authored by a team of researchers from the University of Western Australia, the WA Department of Health and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth – showed that while instances of malignant mesothelioma (MM) among people exposed to asbestos at work appears to have levelled off, in the past decade there has been a sharp rise in cases linked to home renovations.
Drawing on data compiled by the Western Australian Mesothelioma Register, the study found that exposure to asbestos at work still remains the most common source of the deadly disease, but a rapidly growing proportion of men and women are being diagnosed with the fatal condition following home renovations, particularly those involving sanding asbestos cement walls, lifting linoleum floors, and using asbestos cement sheeting for putting up fences, sheds and extensions.
The study’s co-authors – Nola Olsen, Peter Franklin, Alison Reid, Nicholas de Klerk, Timothy Threlfall, Keith Shilkin and Bill Musk – warned that the prevalence of asbestos materials used in the construction of homes built before 1984 meant that this ‘third wave’ of devastating mesothelioma cases – following the initial flood of cases engulfing asbestos mine workers and the subsequent rise of the disease among building workers – could continue to develop.
“The number of cases of MM in WA is still increasing, although the number associated with occupational asbestos exposure appears to be reaching a plateau,” the authors wrote.
“However, MM cases associated with home maintenance and renovation have increased markedly over the past 10 years and remain on an upward trend.”
Though the findings were based on WA data, they are of national significance given the ubiquity of asbestos as a building material through much of the post-war period, with a survey showing that in the Australian Capital Territory alone around 63 per cent of homes contain the material.
The scale of home renovation activity has amplified this risk, with official figures showing that 66 per cent of houses built between 1920 and 1949 were renovated in the 10 years to 1999.
The paper was published in the MJA on 5 September 2011.
26 May 2012
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