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Article: Asbestos and international organizations.(Correspondence)(Letter to the Editor)
- Article from:
- Environmental Health Perspectives
- Article date:
- May 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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More information is available on the harmful effects of asbestos, and more incontestable epidemiologic and experimental evidence is available on its carcinogenicity, than for any other environmental agent. The first reports of its use date back more than 2,000 years. Herodotus and Plinium mention it (Castleman 1986; McCulloch 1986; Selikoff and Lee 1978). Despite early awareness of the harmful effect of inhaled fibers, it was only in 1902, and only in the United Kingdom, that asbestos was first included among the dusts known to be harmful to humans (Selikoff and Lee 1978). Cooke reported on fibrosis of the lungs caused by asbestos inhalation in 1924, but the term ...