Book Description
While there are hundreds of books available on many different aspects of asbestos, none contain the encyclopedic, comprehensive coverage you will find here. Edited by leading authorities, with contributions from specialists and leaders in their respective fields, Asbestos: Risk Assessment, Epidemiology, and Health Effects provides a cross-disciplinary approach and an authoritative review of asbestos research. The breadth and depth of coverage spans history, pathology, epidemiology, as well as sampling, analysis, and regulatory issues.Following the path of asbestos from its natural sources to its effects at the cell, organism, and population levels, the volume covers testing methods, types of exposure, and the associated health effects. It provides a multi-disciplinary look at sampling methods, analysis, pathology, and regulations. The book explores differences in the detection levels achieved with various techniques applied to the various types of environmental and human samples. This includes comparisons of recommended and/or required sampling schemes and the parameters associated with the instruments used in each of the methods.Offering state-of-the-art data on asbestos exposure and the resultant development of disease, the content is styled so that the depth of coverage is sufficient for specialists and researchers but also useful for anyone having to deal with asbestos-related problems. ... Read more

Book Description
Mesotheliomas of Animals is the first book to provide a comprehensive compilation of the diverse and often disparate literature regarding animal mesotheliomas. The compendium presents evidence to support the existence of "background" and "threshold," both of which are concepts central to the controversy surrounding nonasbestos-related mesotheliomas. Examples of "background" tumors (those which are nonasbestos-related) are described in detail, and indications of "threshold" for the induction of mesotheliomas following exposure to asbestiform and nonasbestiform agents are evident from the "positive dose-response" studies that are discussed. This compendium also allows for easy comparison of tumor yields elicited in "inoculation" studies performed with the same fiber types at similar doses. These comparisons often demonstrate markedly different tumor yields and highlight the limitations of injection techniques for fiber safety assessment. Mesotheliomas of Animals will be an essential reference for industrial hygienists, environmental lawyers, cancer researchers, and pulmonary scientists. It will be particularly useful to anyone involved with the design of fiber safety tests or with developing experimental models and protocols to assess the manner in which mesotheliomagenesis occurs. ... Read more

Book Description
The book is a composite of information about the history of and the diseases caused by exposure to asbestos.Interwoven with a personal story, it includes the illness and subsequent death of the author's father due to his asbestos exposure in an industrial setting. The author highlights asbestos as a carcinogen in our environment which was widely used without first being fully tested. ... Read more

Product Description
This book represents a few threads of a complex weaving; a small part of a story of the Baryulgil Asbestos Mine and its disastrous effects upon Bundjalung People and others. ... Read more

Book Description
This volume presents a rigorous account of statistical forecasting efforts that led to the successful resolution of the Johns-Manville asbestos litigation. This case, taking 12 years to reach settlement, is expected to generate nearly 500,000 claims at a total nominal value of over $34 billion. The forecasting task, to project the number, timing, and nature of claims for asbestos-related injuries from a set of exposed persons of unknown size, is a general problem: the models in this volume can be adapted to forecast industry-wide asbestos liability. More generally, because the models are not overly dependent on the U.S. legal system and the role of asbestos as a dangerous/defective product, this volume will be of interest in other product liability cases, as well as similar forecasting situations for a range of insurable or compensable events. The volume stresses the iterative nature of model building and the uncertainty generated by lack of complete knowledge of the injury process. This uncertainty is balanced against the Court's need for a definitive settlement, and the volume addresses how these opposing principles can be reconciled. The volume is written for a broad audience of actuaries, biostatisticians, demographers, economists, epidemiologists, environmental health scientists, financial analysts, industrial-risk analysts, occumpational health analysts, product liability analysts, and statisticians. The modest prerequisites include basic concepts of statistics, calculus, and matrix algebra. Care is taken that readers without specialized knowledge in these areas can understand the rationale for specific applications of advanced methods. As a consequence, this volume will be an indispensable reference for all whose work involves these topics.Eric Stallard, A.S.A., M.A.A.A., is Research Professor and Associate Director of the Center for Demographic Studies at Duke University.He is a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries and an Associate of the Society of Actuaries.He serves on the American Academy of Actuaries Committees on Long Term Care and Social Insurance.He also serves on the society of Actuaries' Long Term Care Experience Committee.His research interests include modelling and forecasting for medical demography and health actuarial practice.He was the 1996 winner of the National Institute on Aging's James A. Shannon Director's Award.Kenneth G. Manton, Ph.D., is Research Professor, Research Director, and Director of the Center for Demographic Studies at Duke University and Medical Research Professor at Duke University Medical Center's Department of Community and Family Medicine.Dr. Manton is also a Senior Fellow of the Duke University Medical Center's Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development.His research interests include mathematical models of human aging, mortality, and chronic disease.He was the 1990 recipient of the Mindel C. Sheps Award in Mathematical Demography presented by the Population Association of America; and in 1991 he received the Allied-Signal Inc. Achievement Award in Aging administred by the Johns Hopkins Center on Aging.Joel E. Cohen, Ph.D., Dr. P.H., is Professor of Populations, and Head of the Laboratory of Populations, Rockefeller University.He also is Professor of Populations at Columbia University.His research interests include the demography, ecology, epidemiology, and social organization of human and non-human populations, and related mathematical concepts.In 1981, he was elected Fellow of the MacArthur and Guggenheim Foundations.He was the 1992 recipient of the Mindel C. Sheps Award in Mathematical Demography presented by the Population Association of America; and in 1994, he received the Distinguished Statistical Ecologist Award at the Sixth International Congress of Ecology. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Details Make the Difference
Reading "Forecasting Product Liability Claims" with the eyes of an attorney involved in the management of mass tort litigation settlements is a daunting task because the text contains very detailed statistical formulae and concepts.However, it is the clarity with which the concepts are explained that allows the non-statistician who has interest to follow the logic.Understanding how the statistics professional accumulates and finds understanding in the seemingly unassociated data should give great insight to the legal professional, whether lawyer or judge, who needs to bring individual justice to thousands of claimants.The introduction by Judge Weinstein is the icing on a rich slowly digested cake for the legal professional.
Lawrence Curtis, General Counsel, Mass Tort Settlements Services ... Read more

Book Description
The horrifying true story of the decades-long poisoning of a small town and the definitive exposé of asbestos in America-told by the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists who broke it.

In a valley in Montana, the U.S. has spent millions of dollars removing toxic residue from a town that had lain pristine for ages. Until the last century, when the dust came down like a snowstorm. That dust turned a paradise into the worst of America's killing fields, a name at the top of the list that includes Love Canal and Woburn. A place now known to be deadlier than all the rest: Libby.

An Air That Kills is told through the eyes of the men and women who fought back-among them, a woman who watched more than forty members of her family succumb to asbestos; a miner who worked there and carried the poison home; and an EPA investigator who battled not only one of the world's most powerful corporations but also his superiors in Washington. It is the first book to reveal how deeply asbestos has embedded itself into the texture of America: how many people have died or are dying; how the industry and government repeatedly ignored the danger; and how, for many Americans, the dying is not over. It is a suspense story with real American heroes at its heart and one of the most importants works of environmental journalism in years. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

A Very Compelling but One-Sided Story
The plight of the people of Libby and the other sites around the country is very sad and you want to hate WR Grace and the previous mine owners and operators.While their reponsibility is not in doubt, the book could have been improved by more information about what exactly they knew and when.I'm sure Grace et al. did not cooperate with the authors, but the extensive litigation should have made some of this information available.

A True Account of Lethal Deception for Profit
The author Andrew Schneider tells the story of uncovering a scandal of major proportions.It is a frightening, chilling story of hidden dangers allowed by government officials whose jobs are to keep us safe.It is the story of a mineral still used in our country whose lethal dangers were recorded by Pliny the Elder.Asbestos cannot be safely used in any manner.

Who should profit?
I am in the middle of this book and I find it very compelling.I was interested in customer reviews and when I read the last review on how the story is not yet complete because many of the victims of this scandal do not have health insurance, I felt compelled to write.

Everyone will be making a profit on this story.WB Grace made their money and now the media will make their money.While I agree that the authors have done a wonderful public service uncovering this environmental disaster,I would like to suggest that a substantial amount of the money made on this book (and the perhaps subsequent movie) could be donated to the victims.If not for their illness, there would be no story. I was recently appalled to learn about the monies that were made by media stars on the Watergate scandal while Deep Throat (whoe courage made it all possible) was not doing quite as well.For the media to make money off these stories without providing for the victims is not right either.

Truly shocking! Superbly written!
This book is a masterpiece of investigative journalism - well written, throughly researched and truly in the interests of the public.

The authors do a superb job of combining all the science and politics with a touching picture of the real Americans who ultimately paid and are paying the price for corporate greed and governmental push-overs.

If you read just one book this year, this should be it!

Actually, a Real Page-Turner. This book deserves to be read!
I want you to read this book. It is important to you and your family. I consider myself a knowledgeable person and I don't remember this scandal when it came out in 2000-2001. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that I live in southern CA, but the problems with asbestos effects all of us in the US. Attic insulation, talc products and even gardening/soil products have asbestos risks that have been used and available for sale up into the 1990's and beyond.

I must have read a review or heard one of the authors in an interview...but somehow this book made it onto my "Must Read" list.When I received the book, I questioned why I had gotten it, having forgotten what motivated my interest in the first place. But I started reading and have found this book to be a treasure.

The story is one of deception, corruption and greed on the part of Big Business, in this case the mining business.The owners and executives misled their workers, investors and the government agencies that regulated them into turning a blind eye to the dangers of asbestos in their products.

While the deception of the miners in Libby was unconscionable, the book goes on to document the Bush White House withholding information that the air in and around the World Trade Center was not healthy!Can you imagine, after a tragedy like the WTC disaster, that your own government, that you rallied round to give support, would turn on you and withhold information that the air that you breathe is full of cancer causing dust? Which tragedy is worse?

The book is truly a must-read.

Lastly, I want to point out the courage of the reporters, editors, doctors and the outstanding EPA field workers that fought to get this story out.Whistle-blowers, whose main motivation is to right a wrong, are oftentimes rewardedby getting fired and branded as outcasts.This book is ultimately a story of courage and perserverance of those determined to overcome the obstacles of standing out and doing what's right. ... Read more