Asbestos Story Was Unbalanced and Alarmist

I was dismayed to read the lack of balance in the front page story in the September 13 edition of the Crimson entitled, "Parents Not Told of Asbestos." That story appeared the day after an article in the Boston Sunday Globe entitled, "Asbestos in Harvard Housing Angers Father of Freshman." A further article in the Crimson on September 17 adverted to asbestos contamination in an article entitled, "Police Work Amid Damage, Disrepair."

As an attorney experienced in defending companies involved in the so-called "asbestos-in-buildings" litigation, I found the tone of the Crimson article unfortunate, and I write to offer some rational perspective on the matter of asbestos in buildings and to address any undue concern which may have been caused by the above-refenced stories.

In-place asbestos-containing building materials do not pose a health threat to building occupants. More to the point, chrysotile asbestos, the type used almost exclusively in flooring products like linoleum, was characterized as "innocuous" by experts at a World Health Organization conference in Lyon, France in 1989. The simple fact of the matter is that the relative risk posed to building occupants by asbestos-containing building materials pales in comparison to the risks of everyday life.

To put the 29 Garden Street matter in perspective, consider the case of the Prudential Center in Boston's Back Bay. The Prudential Tower contains literally tones of sprayed-on fire proofing containing 60 percent amosite asbestos. Amosite asbestos is claimed by some to have a greater disease-causing potential than chrysotile, the type presumably in the linoleum at 29 Garden Street.

Based upon ten years of periodic air sampling at the Tower, an expert biostatician has calculated that the relative risk associated with working in the Tower for 20 years is equivalent to smoking one pack of cigarettes in an entire lifetime (lung cancer only), riding a motorcycle for 11 miles, spending time indoors over five months (radon exposure), or going on a two-week vacation in the Rocky Mountains (ultraviolet radiation).

Tony Snow hit the nail on the head in an oped piece in the Boston Globe on September 11 when he wrote: "The asbestos panic, started by sloppy science and spread by gullible journalists, has gone far enough." The Crimson would better its readership and the University community by balancing its reporting with a little research.

As for the Harvard alumnus concerned over his daughter's health at 29 Garden Street, his energy would be better spent in making sure his daughter avoids, at all costs, cigarette smokers, motorcyclists, urban indoor environments and Colorado vacations. Lawrence G. Cetrulo