[Evaluation of the size of the population occupationally exposed to asbestos dust and the incidence of asbestosis in Poland 1970-1980].

The analysis was based on the data on occupational exposure to asbestos dust obtained from sanitary--epidemiological stations and cards of occupational diseases certification collected at the Institute of Occupational Medicine in Lódź. The approximate number of those occupationally exposed to asbestos dust in national economy as a whole was about 6400 persons (excluding the data on the Polish State Railways, Ministry of National Defence, Ministry of Internal Affairs) of this--3000 persons worked at concentrations exceeding TLV values for the dust containing asbestos. Approx. 2200 subjects worked at workplaces where no dust concentrations measurements were made. Mostly this work was performed periodically, casually, for varying daily or monthly number of hours. The highest exposure rates were those of the provinces of Lódź, Jelenia Góra and Gdańsk (up to 1980), Warszawa and Katowice. In seventeen provinces there is not a single workplace with asbestos dust. During 1970-1980, 143 cases of asbestosis were found in Poland, of this--49% women. The length of employment in asbestos dust exposure of those with diagnosed asbestosis came, on average, to 20 years (92%) worked more than 10 years, 48% more than 20 years).