Asbestos: Socio-legal and Scientific Controversies and Unsound Science in the Context of the Worldwide Asbestos Tragedy – Lessons to be Learned^[*]

 

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Abstract

Eight to fifteen per cent of lung cancer cases and nearly all mesothelioma cases are caused by asbestos. Problems in compensation issues ensue from strict legal requirements for eligibility and regulations of the statutory accident insurance institution pertaining to eligibility for occupational disease benefits. The latter include the unscientific requirement for set numbers of asbestos bodies or fibers to be found in lung tissue in order to “prove” disease causation if lung specimen are available. Although the validity of such evidence has been discredited by independent scientists, it is still used as evidence by an influential US pathology department. Frequently, epidemiological evidence regarding causal relationships and exposure histories is also often being ignored by insurance-affiliated medical experts.

Similar misleading arguments are currently being used in newly industrialized countries where white asbestos – which is carcinogenic and fibrogenic like other asbestos types – is efficiently promoted as being less harmful. As a result, asbestos use is increasing in some of these countries. Behind the worldwide asbestos tragedy, a well-designed strategy orchestrated by certain transnational or multinational industrial interest groups can be perceived.

Beyond the asbestos tragedy their covert plan is motivated by economic interests and discounts the ensuing damage to health and the impact of the diseases they create on public health systems.

Zusammenfassung

8 – 15 % aller Lungenkrebsfälle und nahezu alle Mesotheliome sind asbestbedingt.

Probleme der Berufskrankheiten-Entschädigung ergeben sich aufgrund der teils vom Verordnungsgeber, teils von der Arbeitgeber-Haftversicherung, d. h. den Berufsgenossenschaften, vorgegebenen hohen Hürden der Beweisanforderung. Von letzteren ist besonders die wissenschaftlich widerlegte Forderung des Nachweises einer bestimmten Zahl von Asbestkörpern bzw. -fasern im Lungengewebe relevant. Sie hat sich auch bei einem einflussreichen Pathologieinstitut in den USA etabliert. Dabei wird den sich aus epidemiologischen Studien ergebenden Wahrscheinlichkeiten für den Ursachenzusammenhang jegliche Bedeutung abgesprochen.

Entsprechend negierende Argumentationen finden sich aktuell in Schwellenländern. Dort wird Weißasbest, der wie andere Asbestarten kanzerogen und fibrogen ist, derart effizient propagiert, dass die Verbrauchsmengen z. T. wieder ansteigen.

Über die weltweite Asbest-Tragödie hinaus ist von Bedeutung, dass, zumeist geschickt verdeckt, letztendlich in vergleichbarer Weise bestimmte transnational oder global agierende industrielle Interessengruppen ihre wirtschaftlichen Interessen ähnlich rigoros auf Kosten des Gesundheitsrisikos der Allgemeinheit verfolgen.

^* Dedicated to Univ.-Prof. em. Dr. med. Hans-Joachim Woitowitz on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

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