>Forwarded from another list - may be of interest:




> Here is an interesting story from:
>
><http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,34342,00.html>FOXNews.com
>Asbestos Could Have Saved WTC Lives
>
> Friday, September 14, 2001
> By Steven Milloy
>
>
>
> Respond to Editor
>
> Email this Article
>
> Asbestos fibers in the air and rubble following the
>collapse of the World
> Trade Center is adding to fears in the aftermath of
>Tuesday’s terrorist
> attack. The true tragedy in the asbestos story,
>though, is the lives that
> might have been saved but for 1970s-era hysteria
>about asbestos.
>
> Until 30 years ago, asbestos was added to
>flame-retardant sprays used to
> insulate steel building materials, particularly
>floor supports. The insulation
> was intended to delay the steel from melting in the
>case of fire by up to four
> hours.
>
> In the case of the World Trade Center, emergency
>plans called for this
> four-hour window to be used to evacuate the
>building while helicopters
> sprayed to put out the fire and evacuated persons
>from the roof.
>
> The use of asbestos ceased in the 1970s following
>reports of asbestos
> workers becoming ill from high exposures to
>asbestos fibers. The Mt. Sinai
> School of Medicine’s Irving Selikoff had reported
>that asbestos workers had
> higher rates of lung cancer and other diseases.
>Selikoff then played a key
> role in the campaign to halt the use of asbestos in
>construction.
>
> In 1971, New York City banned the use of asbestos
>in spray fireproofing. At
> that time, asbestos insulating material had only
>been sprayed up to the 64th
> floor of the World Trade Center towers.
>
> Other materials were substituted for asbestos.
>Though the substitute sprays
> passed Underwriters Laboratories’ tests, not
>everyone was convinced they
> would work as well.
>
> One skeptic was the late-Herbert Levine who
>invented spray fireproofing with
> wet asbestos in the late-1940s. Levine’s invention
>involved a combination of
> asbestos with mineral wool and made commonplace the
>construction of
> large steel framed buildings.
>
> Previously, buildings such as the Empire State
>Building had to have their
> steel framework insulated with concrete, a much
>more expensive insulator
> that was more difficult to use.
>
> Levine’s company, Asbestospray, was familiar with
>the World Trade Center
> construction, but failed to get the contract for
>spraying insulation in the World
> Trade Center. Levine frequently would say that "if
>a fire breaks out above the
> 64th floor, that building will fall down."
>
> That appears to be what happened Tuesday, according
>to Richard Wilson, a
> risk expert and physics professor at Harvard University.
>
> The two hijacked airliners crashed into floors 96
>to 103 of One World Trade
> Center and floors 87 to 93 of Two World Trade
>Center. Instead of the steel
> girders of the towers lasting up to four hours
>before melting, the steel frames
> of One World Trade Center lasted only one hour and
>forty minutes, while the
> steel frames of Two World Trade Center lasted just
>56 minutes before
> collapsing.
>
> Though many were able to escape during those times,
>thousands apparently
> were not, including the hundreds of firefighters
>and police killed when the
> buildings suddenly and prematurely collapsed.
>
> Selikoff was certainly right to point out that some
>workers heavily exposed to
> certain types of asbestos fibers were at increased
>risk of disease. But
> Selikoff was wrong to press the panic button about
>any use of or exposure to
> asbestos. For example, no adverse health effect has
>ever been attributed to
> Levine’s technique of spraying wet asbestos,
>according to Harvard’s Wilson.
>
> We may now be paying a horrible price for junk
>science-fueled asbestos
> hysteria.
>
> Steven Milloy is the publisher of JunkScience.com,
>an adjunct scholar at the
> Cato Institute and the author of the upcoming book
>Junk Science Judo:
> Self-defense Against Health Scares and Scams (Cato
>Institute, 2001).
>--
>
>=====================
>
> I've heard reports that DDT doesn't really cause the problems it
>is accused of - just an example of post hoc ergo promptor hoc. But,
>there's been something like 100 million extra deaths by insect carried
>contagions. (personally, I'm not completely sure of the level of risk to
>the environment, but there is considerable evidence that the risk was
>inflated.
>
>Junk science costs lives. I expect millions of poor 3rd
>world people to perish because of self righteous technophobes declaring
>that bio engineered foods are "playing God". Society seems to have no
>idea how to compare relative risks.
>
>Other egregious examples of the cost of junk science are Dow Corning
>being driven out of business by bogus implant law suits.
>
>I encourage people to read "Voodoo Science - the road from
>foolishness to fraud"
>
>Eric Krieg
>
><http://www.phact.org/e/>http://www.phact.org/e/
>
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--


Dr. Keith S. Taber
University of Cambridge Faculty of Education
Hills Road Site (Homerton College Campus)
Cambridge CB2 2PH


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