Scientific controversy and asbestos: making disease invisible.
Despite irrefutable evidence that asbestos causes asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma, asbestos mining, milling, and manufacturing continue. The authors discuss three scientific debates over the roles of fiber types, viruses, and genetics in the development of mesothelioma. While these controversies might appear internal to science and unconnected to policies of the global asbestos industry, they argue that scientific debates, whether or not fostered by industry, play a central role in shaping conceptualization of the problem of asbestos-related disease. In South Africa, India, and elsewhere, these controversies help to make the disease experience of asbestos-exposed workers and people in asbestos-contaminated communities invisible, allowing the asbestos industry to escape accountability for its practices.
Braun
Lundy
L
Department of Pathology, Center for Environmental Studies, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA.
Greene
Anna
A
Manseau
Marc
M
Singhal
Raman
R
Kisting
Sophie
S
Jacobs
Nancy
N
D001194:Asbestos / Q000009:adverse effects*; D001195:Asbestosis / Q000209:etiology*; D002273:Carcinogens / Q000009:adverse effects*; D003906:Developing Countries; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007221:Industry; D019359:Knowledge; D008654:Mesothelioma / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D011640:Public Policy; D012307:Risk Factors; D012586:Science / Q000639:trends; D013019:South Africa
D002273:Carcinogens; D001194:Asbestos