Asbestos pollution

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos pollution, by A.N. Rohl, A.M. Langer, I.J. Selikoff (Science, 1977).

The study

• Authors: A.N. Rohl, A.M. Langer, I.J. Selikoff
• Journal: Science
• Published: 1977;197(4305):716-8
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This item was an exchange of letters published in Science, not a research article. John T. Hack wrote to criticize an earlier report by Rohl, Langer, and Selikoff on asbestos pollution from quarried serpentine rock near Rockville, Maryland. Hack argued that the quarry's mineralogy meant little without medical data, and that calling it a hazard was irresponsible. In their reply, Rohl, Langer, and Selikoff wrote that what was new was the use of the ore: it was quarried, finely crushed, and spread over roads, paths, playgrounds, driveways and parking areas. They wrote that this released the asbestos it contained (chrysotile) into community air. They stated that in Montgomery County it was found in concentrations sometimes 1000 times higher than in the air of many U.S. cities. They also asked whether "hard data" should be awaited after a 20- to 30-year latency period before environmental asbestos air pollution is controlled. The available text breaks off partway through their reply.

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: Letters to the editor: a critical letter by John T. Hack and a reply by the authors of the earlier report; correspondence, not a research study
• Who was studied: No people were studied. The letters concern communities in Montgomery County, Maryland, where crushed serpentine rock from a quarry near Rockville was used.
• Exposure: Chrysotile asbestos released from finely crushed serpentine rock that was spread over roads, paths, playgrounds, driveways and parking areas
• Main results:
  • Hack's letter argued that the mineralogy of the quarry was irrelevant without medical data, and that calling it a hazard was irresponsible.
  • The reply stated that what was new was that the ores were being quarried, finely crushed and spread over roads, paths, playgrounds, driveways and parking areas.
  • The reply stated that in Montgomery County, Maryland, the asbestos was found in air concentrations sometimes 1000 times higher than in many U.S. cities.
  • The reply questioned whether local "hard data" should be awaited after a 20- to 30-year latency period.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors argued, in the form of questions, that environmental asbestos air pollution should be controlled without waiting for local disease data to appear after a long latency period.

Related studies

• Environmental asbestos pollution related to use of quarried serpentine rock — A.N. Rohl, A.M. Langer, et al. (1977)
• Asbestos air pollution — I.J. Selikoff, W.J. Nicholson, et al. (1972)
• Urban air pollution and lung cancer in Stockholm — F. Nyberg, P. Gustavsson, et al. (2000)
• Indoor air pollution: a public health perspective — J.D. Spengler, K. Sexton (1983)
• Relationship of mortality to measures of environmental asbestos pollution in an asbestos textile factory — J. Peto, R. Doll, et al. (1985)
• The protective role of antioxidants in the defence against ROS/RNS-mediated environmental pollution — B. Poljšak, R. Fink (2014)

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