Asbestos

In a controversial article, The Great Asbestos Hysteria (Mail, February 23), we said that according to the Health and Safety Executive, the risks from white asbestos products are ‘ insignificant’, and ‘arguably zero’ in the case of lung cancer. The HSE assessments related to specific levels of exposure to white asbestos fibres, not white asbestos products, and found a risk from higher levels. The article said that asbestos in UK schools is almost all white. According to the HSE, the more harmful brown asbestos was also frequently used in schools. The writer was in error in saying that the HSE had been forced to withdraw a series of commercials claiming that mesothelioma kills 4,500 a year. In fact, the advertisements were based on an estimate of 4,000 deaths from all asbestos-related disease.