RUNNING EPAMUCK

1 angstrom is 10^10 m, or 1/10,000,000,000 m. Several readers who had counted the zeroes in the Oct. issue found three missing.] The only type mined in the US, chrysotile, may give rise to these dimensions in certain processes such as spinning and weaving for asbestos textiles, but they are much less likely to arise in the drilling and grinding used for brake linings. "There is no evidence of significant health hazards to the public," says the summary, "from exposure to asbestos in the ambient air and in buildings unless the person is breathing in the immediate vicinity of loose asbestos that is being disturbed." This confirms the opinion of many scientists, previously reported here, that ripping out asbestos from school walls endangers children more than leaving them sealed in the walls as insulation.

OK, so the documents were presented by the Canadian Asbestos Institute, and they were sent to me by a PR firm which, unlike the Institute of Policy Studies or Rep. Dellums, has to register as a "foreign agent." But that invalidates them only in the eyes of bigots who don't go by the evidence, but by who is presenting it.

Apart from the Royal Commission on Asbestos, there were testimonials by internationally known scientists in high positions of the world's reputable universities, research institutes and hospitals. These are genuine scientists with a reputation to protect, not ex-scientists like Cochrane or non-scientists like Brodeur who have a vested interest in the alarmism that gives them both monetary and ideological gratification.*

The Canadian presentation also included one interesting document: a letter from the US Embassy in Stockholm (8/16/85) to the Swedish Foreign Ministry, commenting in no uncertain terms on a Swedish government proposal to ban asbestos brake linings. "The proposed regulation is unnecessarily restrictive and imposes an unjust burden on imported products... Nor does scientific evidence indicate that asbestos-containing brake linings constitute a hazard to health... The performance of the braking systems of vehicles which were originally designed with asbestos linings could be seriously impaired if asbestos-free linings are used as replacements. This may result in the creation of serious safety problems... The U.S. Government does not believe that the brake linings of U.S. vehicles imported into Sweden constitutes a threat to the environment and health..."

After Fortune had published an inept review of Brodeur's quackery on asbestos by a political scientist, I called on its editor Daniel Seligman to publish an article on the asbestos problem by Dr J.R. Dunn or an equally informed professional [AtE Feb 86 of which I sent him a copy]. Seligman did not do so, nor did he deem me worthy of a reply.