Bias hits asbestos hazards research

Amid mounting demands for a ban on all forms of asbestos, leading international scientists have claimed that research into health hazards associated with the substance is being improperly influenced by commercial interests.

American safety expert Dr Richard Lemen, has written to the directors-general of the World Health Organisation, the International Labour Office, and the United Nations Environment Programme complaining of commercial bias.

Dr Lemen is particularly concerned about the research carried out under the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS), which includes work on asbestos and lead.

He said: "IPCS repeatedly places representatives of the affected industries in central roles in writing IPCS publications in violation of accepted procedures for scientific objectivity. In some cases independent experts have been excluded because of opposition by business interests."

Lemen warns: "this deviation from fair practice" has occurred in the production of safety documents on chrysotile asbestos, lead, and metholyne chloride.

The complaint has been taken up in this country by George Henderson, national secretary of the TGWU union and a member of the Health and Safety Executive's construction advisory committee.

"My union's national committee is fearful that the IPCS chrysotile panel would produce a propaganda document that could spur sales of asbestos to developing countries, the result would be horrendous, particularly in countries with limited health infrastructure," he told CJ.

Henderson said there was evidence of "extreme bias in favour of the chemical and asbestos industries in their evaluations of environmental health hazards".

Dr Lemen's protest is backed by more than fifty scientists from the US, Canada, the UK, Israel, and South Africa.