[Unrecognized occupational risk of pleural mesothelioma. The example of the Rhône-Alps region].

A retrospective study of pleural mesothelioma diagnosed between 1980 and 1988 in the Rhône-Alpes région allowed to identify 224 cases. From the 187 patients in which occupational history was available 105 (56%) had been exposed to asbestos at work and 44 had been recognised as occupation disease and compensated. These data illustrate that the real incidence of the disease is largely underestimated and that legal procedure for occupational disease recognition is highly deficient.