The health-related effects of asbestos have long been mired in controversy, with industry and plaintiff attorneys playing a significant role. This comprehensive book provides a balanced and extensive evidence-based critical analysis of the literature concerning asbestos-related diseases, from a scientific and historical perspective. The book pre "What Dr. Smith outlines as an evidence-based approach is likely as relevant to other key toxic materials as it is to asbestos. His first chapter, devoted to reading and finding truth in the medical scientific literature, is instructive in many fields. An understanding of the health effects of asbestos has remained as refractory as the mineral itself. I'll return to these pages many times, as much to understand how we have proceeded, as to review the specific health-related effects of asbestos." - J. Thomas Pierce, MBBS PhD (Navy Environmental Health Center)