We would like to congratulate Borron et al. [1997] for their attempted reconstruction of the Metropolitan Life/ Johns Manville Study conducted in 1931Study conducted in -1932. They follow the tradition of Dr. Anthony Lanza in their vigorous effort to provide a reanalysis of the medical literature in order to help asbestos companies and their insurers defend lawsuits.
However, Borron et al. fail to report the most important finding of the Lanza study. As noted in a previously published report on this 1932 study, Lanza et al. discovered asbestosis in a watchman, a pipe fitter, and five shipping department workers [Egilman and Hardy, 1993]. Lanza et al. were the first Americans to demonstrate that bystanders such as these types of workers were at risk for development of asbestosis through the phenomenon of fiber drift. It took several years before similar cases were reported in the published medical literature. Unfortunately, the readers of the journal were not informed of these facts in the analysis provided by Borron et al. These omitted details were the most important findings of the Lanza survey.
Borron et al. argued that Lanza believed the following statements were true when he made them: 1) Miners were not getting ill from their exposures to asbestos while mining; 2) Asbestosis was a ''milder disease than silicosis''. They also argued that Lanza felt that: 3) A worker had a ''right to know'' about ''unnecessary exposure to dust;'' 4) Employees should be rotated out of work settings if they have had high exposures to dust.