"Andy Champ" wrote in message
...
John Whitworth wrote:


"Andy Champ" wrote in message
. uk...

Unfortunately there is evidence that the reason _all_ types were banned
is so that someone could make a quick buck. White asbestos cement roofs
are more likely to cause a fall hazard than a cancer one.

Andy

Should have asked in the last post - can you provide that evidence
please? I would be interested to see it. Brown and blue asbestos were
banned for UK import in 1985 to my knowledge, with white being banned in
1999, under an EU-wide directive. Labour had promised to do it upon
election, but apparently Canadian opposition and lawsuits were too much
for any one country to take on.


Well I'm going to assume that you aren't asking for evidence of the lack
of man-carrying strength, so it must be the cancer risk

So.. a link or two...

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/338/22/1565

That's interesting as a Canadian study specifically stating that the (US
Government) EPA estimates for the risks are at least 10 times too high.

And there's a nice summary he

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/chemistry/Asbestos.html

Enough?

Andy

Sorry - only just managed to plonk myself in front of the PC. Was finishing
part of the garage conversion yesterday - spraying the walls with a
fire-retardant mix of asbestos. ;-) Oh - OK - painting it with Dulux
emulsion! Anyway - thanks for these links.

Haven't read them properly yet - though a brief look at the first one shows
me two things that I immediately find questionable:

- the study was limited to women, to eliminate workers in the asbestos
industry
- [JW] so it would likely also eliminate anyone doing DIY asbestos removal
too? Surely factors like DIY working with the stuff should be taken into
account in any environmental assessment, as that's day-to-day usage?

- The results of this study are reassuring with respect to lung cancer, but
there were significant excess numbers of deaths due to pleural cancer (seven
deaths) and asbestosis (two deaths). The instances of pleural cancer suggest
an excess risk of mesothelioma. However, since historical death certificates
reflect the incidence of mesothelioma poorly we have launched a separate
study based on a province-wide survey of hospital records.

On the second article, much of the summarising at the end simply sounds like
the "yes, we as the asbestos industry know that blue asbestos is really bad,
and so by getting rid of that, we have cleaned up the industry".

I haven't scoured each article properly, as I said, and so I haven't found
evidence of "_all_ types were banned is so that someone could make a quick
buck".

JW