Statistical tables--asbestos

Our plain-English summary of Statistical tables--asbestos, by T.C. May (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1965).

The study

• Author: T.C. May
• Journal: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
• Published: 1965;132(1):745-65
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy.

In plain English

This item was not a health study. It was an appendix of statistical tables on the asbestos industry, prepared by Timothy C. May of the Division of Minerals, U.S. Bureau of Mines. The text explained that the tables updated data from a 1959 Bureau of Mines survey of asbestos by Oliver Bowles. The tables, in short tons, covered world asbestos production by country for 1957 to 1962. They also covered production in the United States, Canada (including by grade), South Africa and Southern Rhodesia, and United States consumption, imports and exports. Exports from Canada, Southern Rhodesia and South Africa were listed by destination country, some back to 1935. Several tables separated fiber types: chrysotile, amosite and crocidolite (blue asbestos). Footnotes stated that some totals did not add up because of rounding of estimates. They also stated that production in Czechoslovakia, Eritrea, North Korea and Rumania was left out of the world total, and that 1935 destination data for Southern Rhodesia's exports were incomplete. The tables gave no data on workers' exposure or disease and drew no conclusions.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Compilation of statistical tables (appendix) on asbestos production and trade; not a health study
• Who was studied: No people were studied. The tables covered asbestos production and trade by country, mainly 1957 to 1962, with some export tables from 1935 to 1963. They updated a 1959 Bureau of Mines survey by Oliver Bowles.
• Exposure: No human exposure was measured. The tables listed asbestos tonnages, some by fiber type: chrysotile, amosite and crocidolite (blue asbestos).
• Main results:
  • World production of asbestos by country, 1957 to 1962, in short tons
  • Imports of chrysotile asbestos into the United States from Southern Rhodesia, by grade
  • Imports of amosite and crocidolite into the United States, including the years 1935 to 1942
  • Exports of amosite from South Africa by country of destination, 1945 to 1963
  • Exports of asbestos from Southern Rhodesia by country of destination, 1935 to 1963
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Some world production figures did not add to the totals shown, because of rounding where estimated figures were included
  • Asbestos was also produced in Czechoslovakia, Eritrea, North Korea and Rumania, but no estimate for these countries was included in the world total
  • Export destination data from Southern Rhodesia for 1935 were incomplete

Related studies

• WTO confidential: the case of asbestos. World Trade Organization — B. Castleman (2002)
• South African asbestos: production, exports, and destinations, 1959-1993 — J.S. Harington, N.D. McGlashan (1998)
• Global corporate policies and international "double standards" in occupational and environmental health — B. Castleman (1999)
• Canada accused of hypocrisy over asbestos exports — T. Kirby (2010)
• South Africa's export trade in asbestos: demise of an industry — J.S. Harington, N.D. McGlashan, et al. (2010)
• Asbestos poisons World Trade Organization atmosphere — L. Kazan-Allen (2001)

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