Science is not sufficient: Irving J. Selikoff and the asbestos tragedy

New Solutions : a Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy : NS
Jock McCulloch, Geoffrey Tweedale

Abstract

Professor Irving J. Selikoff (1915-1992) was America's foremost medical expert on asbestos-related diseases between the 1960s and early 1990s. He was also well known to the public for his media appearances on the burgeoning asbestos problem. Yet his reputation has been strikingly mixed. On the one hand, he has been portrayed as a mischief maker and irresponsible demagogue, who exaggerated the risks of asbestos and so destroyed an industry; on the other, as a pioneer in asbestos epidemiology, whose landmark studies of insulation (and other) workers demonstrated the severity of a modern occupational and public health tragedy. Drawing upon unprecedented access to the Selikoff archive at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, this article demonstrates that the most serious criticisms of Selikoff are either ill-founded or simply false. It also shows that Selikoff, in the highly politicized world of asbestos science, was a far more complex and conservative individual than previous studies have suggested.

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Citations

Dec 17, 2009·Archives of Environmental & Occupational Health·Derek R Smith
Jan 1, 2011·Archives of Environmental & Occupational Health·Derek R Smith, Eric J Beh
Oct 22, 2011·Archives of Environmental & Occupational Health·Eric J Beh, Derek R Smith
Oct 19, 2012·Archives of Environmental & Occupational Health·Derek R Smith, Eric J Beh
Dec 13, 2007·International Journal of Health Services : Planning, Administration, Evaluation·Jock McCulloch, Geoffrey Tweedale
Jun 2, 2016·Annals of the American Thoracic Society·Drew A HarrisMarjorie S Rosenthal
Jun 16, 2015·American Journal of Industrial Medicine·Morris Greenberg
May 28, 2019·New Solutions : a Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy : NS·Pascal Marichalar
May 11, 2020·Gaceta sanitaria·Fernando G Benavides

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