Asbestos panelists accuse government of misusing science

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos panelists accuse government of misusing science, by L. Eggertson (CMAJ, 2008).

The study

• Author: L. Eggertson
• Journal: CMAJ
• Published: 2008;179(9):886-7
• Type of article: News
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

In plain English

This was a news article in CMAJ, not a research study. It reported on a delayed report by an international expert panel that Health Canada appointed to assess the cancer-causing potential of chrysotile asbestos. The panel chair, Trevor Ogden, accused the Canadian government of misusing science by holding back the report, which was delivered in March 2008 and had not been released. The article said the report contained a consensus document, a chronology of discussions and dissenting opinions, and made no recommendations on listing or banning chrysotile. According to panel member Bice Fubini, the panel agreed with two earlier literature reviews that chrysotile is less carcinogenic than amphibole asbestos for mesothelioma, and also agreed that chrysotile is carcinogenic for lung cancer. The article described Canada as the world's fifth-largest exporter of chrysotile asbestos. A sidebar reported that, according to court transcripts, panel member David Bernstein had previously been retained by Union Carbide. The article presented no study data of its own.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: news article (journalistic report based on interviews and documents); not a research study
• Who was studied: An international expert panel commissioned by Health Canada and chaired by Trevor Ogden. Members quoted or named include Bice Fubini (University of Turin), Nicholas de Klerk (University of Western Australia), Leslie Stayner and David Bernstein. The panel's report was delivered in March 2008.
• Exposure: Chrysotile asbestos compared with amphibole asbestos, as causes of mesothelioma and lung cancer
• Main results:
  • The panel's report, delivered to Health Canada in March 2008, had not been released at the time of the article.
  • In an editorial, panel chair Trevor Ogden accused the Canadian government of misusing science.
  • The report made no recommendations on whether chrysotile should be listed under the Rotterdam Convention or banned, because members were asked only to look at the science of its cancer-causing potential.
  • According to Fubini, panel members agreed with two previous literature reviews concluding that chrysotile asbestos is less carcinogenic than amphibole asbestos for mesothelioma. In the scanned text this sentence is split by column misordering and continues with 'to mesothelioma, Fubini says.'
  • According to Fubini, panel members also agreed that chrysotile is carcinogenic for lung cancer.
  • Panel member Nicholas de Klerk was quoted as saying he did not believe the report contained anything particularly controversial.
  • The article reported that Canada sold approximately 175 000 tonnes of chrysotile asbestos, worth about $112 million, to 80 nations, most of them in Asia.
  • A sidebar reported that, according to court documents, panel member David Bernstein had previously been retained by Union Carbide.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Asbestosis.

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