Asbestos Fact Book (1985)

This is not a research study. It is an August 1985 public information booklet from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It describes asbestos, its health effects, federal regulations and EPA programs; it reports no original health data, though it briefly describes how a building survey sample was chosen. The booklet stated that asbestos is known to cause asbestosis and various forms of cancer. It said mesothelioma almost never occurs without asbestos exposure and that these diseases appear 20 to 40 years after exposure. It said nearly 95 percent of asbestos used in commercial products is chrysotile. In a January 1984 EPA survey of 2,600 public school districts and private schools, one third may have had asbestos problems, 93 percent had been inspected, and 34 percent were in full compliance with EPA's schools rule. A national survey, based on inspections of 231 buildings at 10 sites, estimated that about 700,000 (20 percent) of 3.5 million U.S. federal government buildings, private non-residential buildings and residential apartments contain friable asbestos. It also covered home and brake-work exposure, waste disposal and training programs.

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From J-M's medical library

This copy comes from the Johns-Manville medical library. J-M listed it in its medical library index as no. 004568. Barry Castleman cites it in chapter 8, "Asbestos Disease in Brake Repair Workers", of Asbestos: Medical and Legal Aspects (5th ed., 2005); see Reading Castleman.