Domestic asbestos exposure, lung fibre burden, and pleural mesothelioma in a housewife.

Although the risk of mesothelioma associated with occupational exposure to asbestos is well documented,' the risk posed by environmental and domestic exposure is uncertain.2 Epidemiological analyses of this problem is complicated by the lack of reliable estimates of the asbestos-mesothelioma dose response relation.3 We report here on a diffuse pleural mesothelioma in the wife of a shipyard machinist with quantitative evidence ofsubstantial lung asbestos fibre burden from domestic contact. Although previous reports have documented an increased risk of asbestos related diseases among household contacts of asbestos industry workers, to our knowledge this is the first to provide data on actual lung fibre burden. This report suggests that such household contamination can result in "bystander" exposure levels similar to those found in the industrial setting.