10th May 2008
The HSE attempts to discredit "The Casitle Effect"
The Asbestos Watchdog recently released a report called "Casitile- The New Asbestos" which gave good evidence to suggest that when white asbestos is mixed with cement, it changes its chemistry and structure to become significantly different to the banned fibre.If the science was accepted it would affect 90% of all the banned asbestos in the world . Unsurprisingly, vested interest groups have tried to discredit the report. The HSE's attempt can be found here.
Watchdog instructed independent scientists to review the HSE's report. In summary, this is what they had to say:
"The HSE’s analyst, Dr Burdett, suggested that chrysotile naturally contains more than 1% calcium. This is false
He carried out a series of analyses that aimed to show that the calcium in chrysotile fibres from chrysotile cement had no more calcium than native chrysotile. In fact the chrysotile fibres analysed were chosen and pre-treated before analysis to maximise calcium loss.
Although the report looks impressive to a non-scientist it is very poor science indeed and, in fact, it shows that the work by Professor Pooley was good work and that the claims made by Professor Bridle were reasonable claims."
Please contact us if you wish to read the review of the HSE's report in full.