The four most pernicious myths in asbestos litigation: Part I: safe chrysotile and idiopathic mesothelioma

Our plain-English summary of The four most pernicious myths in asbestos litigation: Part I: safe chrysotile and idiopathic mesothelioma, by C. Meisenkothen (New Solutions, 2014).

The study

• Author: C. Meisenkothen
• Journal: New Solutions
• Published: 2014;24(1):1-26
• Cited by: 2 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

The now well documented phenomenon of "doubt science" has crept into litigation generally, but has had a particularly deleterious effect in asbestos litigation, giving rise to pernicious myths that are told and re-told every day in legal briefs and in court proceedings. Defendants routinely challenge the admissibility of testimony from plaintiffs' expert witnesses when those experts testify about certain key concepts in asbestos medicine and asbestos science. Defendants boldly proclaim plaintiffs' experts' opinions to be "junk science" and seek to have them precluded regardless of how well documented, well researched, well supported and well accepted those opinions are. This has become all too routine in asbestos litigation, where defendants predictably seek to preclude testimony about medical and scientific issues that have been settled for decades and that are not legitimately disputed outside of litigation by the unbiased scientific community of national and international regulatory agencies and scientific organizations.

In plain English

This article is not a new study. It is a commentary and selective literature review by a lawyer who, as the article discloses, represents plaintiffs in asbestos litigation. It is Part I of a two-part piece about what the author called myths raised by defendants in court. Part I addressed two of them: that chrysotile asbestos does not cause mesothelioma, and that a significant percentage of mesotheliomas are idiopathic (of unknown cause). On chrysotile, the author discussed published animal experiments, tissue fiber burden studies, human case reports and case series, epidemiologic studies, and statements by experts and agencies. The author argued that these lines of evidence point the same way. The author also stated that seven papers had misreported data on a Connecticut friction-products factory cohort. On idiopathic mesothelioma, the author cited reviews of historical autopsy records at Massachusetts General Hospital and Mount Sinai Hospital. The author concluded that virtually all, if not all, mesotheliomas are asbestos-related. The author acknowledged covering only a sample of the literature and noted some contrary findings.

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: Commentary and selective literature review (legal and policy essay); no new data collected
• Who was studied: No study population; the author reviewed a selection of published animal and human research, expert statements and agency positions on chrysotile and mesothelioma, and historical autopsy reviews on idiopathic mesothelioma
• Exposure: Chrysotile asbestos (Part I's first topic); asbestos in general for the question of idiopathic or background mesothelioma
• Main results:
  • The author argued that chrysotile's ability to cause mesothelioma is supported by several separate kinds of evidence: experimental studies, tissue fiber burden studies, case reports and case series, and epidemiologic studies.
  • Among the studies cited, the author quoted Suzuki and Yuen's analysis of 151 mesothelioma cases. In one subset of that analysis, chrysotile was present in the mesothelial tissue in 62 of 64 cases (96.9%) and was the only type detected in 48 of the 62 (77.4%). These are that cited study's figures, not data from this article.
  • The author stated that seven papers published over 13 years misreported data on the Connecticut friction-products factory cohort, which several of them reported as having zero mesotheliomas.
  • The author cited Mark and Yokoi's review of Massachusetts General Hospital autopsy records. That review reported that all diffuse malignant pleural mesotheliomas recorded at autopsy over a 95-year period occurred in the last 45 years.
  • The author cited Strauchen's review of 2,025 patient files at Mount Sinai Hospital, which found the first recognized case of malignant mesothelioma there in 1931.
  • The author noted that the commonly cited background rate of 1 to 2 pleural mesothelioma cases per million inhabitants per year has not been confirmed by published data.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that chrysotile causes mesothelioma in humans and that virtually all, if not all, mesotheliomas are asbestos-related, so that courts should not exclude plaintiffs' experts' testimony on these points.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author stated that the literature is too large to cover fully, so only selected studies were discussed.
  • The author acknowledged that some literature points the other way on chrysotile.
  • The author disclosed a competing interest: the author represents plaintiffs in asbestos litigation.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Chrysotile, Mesothelioma.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Chrysotile, Idiopathic Mesothelioma, Defendant, Admissibility, Plaintiff, Expert Witness.

Related studies

• The four most pernicious myths in asbestos litigation: Part II: safe thresholds for exposure and Tyndall lighting as junk science — C. Meisenkothen (2014)
• Exposing the "myth" of ABC, "anything but chrysotile": a critique of the Canadian asbestos mining industry and McGill University chrysotile studies — D. Egilman, C. Fehnel, et al. (2003)
• Chrysotile asbestos is the main cause of pleural mesothelioma — A.H. Smith, C.C. Wright (1996)
• Chrysotile asbestos exposure associated with removal of automobile exhaust systems (ca. 1945-1975) by mechanics: results of a simulation study — D.J. Paustenbach, A.K. Madl, et al. (2006)
• Malignant mesothelioma among employees of a Connecticut factory that manufactured friction materials using chrysotile asbestos — M.M. Finkelstein, C. Meisenkothen (2010)
• Malignant mesothelioma, airborne asbestos, and the need for accuracy in chrysotile risk assessments — C. Meisenkothen (2013)

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