Tobacco and asbestos litigation

Our plain-English summary of Tobacco and asbestos litigation, by T.R. Goffe (Lancet, 1986).

The study

• Author: T.R. Goffe
• Journal: Lancet
• Published: 1986;2(8510):811-2
• Type of article: Letter
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 001195).

In plain English

This is a letter to the editor of The Lancet, not a research study, and it reports no new data. The author, writing from TBA Industrial Products Ltd in Rochdale, responded to a Lancet note of Sept 6 about lawsuits against tobacco manufacturers. The author disagreed with the note's suggestion that rising costs had caused the decline in asbestos use, and argued instead that public perception of unacceptable risk was responsible. The author argued that asbestos can, with care, be handled safely, that it has saved lives through its use in fire insulation and brake linings, and that asbestos cement has technical advantages for some water and sewerage pipes. The author raised concern that some substitutes may contain durable respirable fibre. Citing other published sources, the author wrote that asbestos is implicated in at most 1500 deaths per year in England, Scotland, and Wales. By comparison, smoking was put at at least 78 000 deaths per year in England and Wales. The author called the public perception of asbestos hazard out of proportion to the true risk. The author concluded that a price rise is not among the reasons for the decline in asbestos use.

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: letter to the editor (opinion and commentary); no original research
• Exposure: No specific exposure was studied. The letter discusses asbestos in general, with no fiber types named, and asbestos products such as fire insulation materials, brake linings and asbestos cement piping.
• Main results:
  • The author's argument (not a study finding): public perception of risk, not rising costs, led to the decline of asbestos
  • The author's argument: asbestos can, with care, be handled safely
  • The author's argument: asbestos has saved lives through fire insulation and brake linings
  • The author's argument: asbestos cement has technical advantages for some water and sewerage piping
  • The author's concern: some asbestos substitutes may contain durable respirable fibre
  • A figure the author cited from another source (Jones and Thomas, Lancet 1986): at most 1500 deaths per year in England, Scotland, and Wales implicate asbestos
  • A figure the author cited from another source (British Medical Association/Health Education Council, 1985): smoking is responsible for at least 78 000 deaths per year in England and Wales
  • The author's opinion: public and media perception of asbestos hazard is out of proportion to the true risk
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the decline in asbestos use has complex and varied reasons, and that a price rise is not one of them.

Related studies

• Retinoid signaling and activator protein-1 expression in ferrets given beta-carotene supplements and exposed to tobacco smoke — X.D. Wang, C. Liu, et al. (1999)
• Tobacco-borne siderophoric activity — M.W. Qian, J.W. Eaton (1989)
• Cigarette smoke, asbestos, and small irregular opacities — W. Weiss (1984)
• Cigarette smoke increases the penetration of asbestos fibers into airway walls — D. McFadden, J. Wright, et al. (1986)
• Effects of cigarette smoke and asbestos on airway, vascular and mesothelial cell proliferation — H. Sekhon, J. Wright, et al. (1995)
• Cigarette smoke makes airway and early parenchymal asbestos-induced lung disease worse in the guinea pig — V. Tron, J.L. Wright, et al. (1987)

Browse more research in Lancet, or return to medical research.