Fatal Deception: The Untold Story of Asbestos; Why It Is Still Legal and Still Killing Us

This book, along with "An Air That Kills", should be required reading for everyone. The asbestos epidemic is just starting to escalate, and this book explains why it has been allowed to do so. Think your government cares? Think again! I've been a nurse for 30 years, and I never saw a case of asbestos disease until recently. In 2002 I was diagnosed with asbestos cancer (mesothelioma) as were six others in my community. The other six are all dead now, and I wait for the reaper to take me. I got my lethal exposure from a single home renovation project 30 years ago. I was unaware that any structure built in the 50's, 60's, 70's or 80's is packed with asbestos. So I went from sanding drywall to losing a lung and my life. No exposure is safe - the EPA knew this a quarter of a century a go, yet they remained silent. If there's a scarier manifest about how expendable citizens are to the corporations and politicians, I've yet to encounter it. Read and beware, America!!

Let me say right up front that I am a steadfast supporter of the free market. However, it serves neither the free market nor humanity when giant corporations are run by people who are no better than mass murderers. Exaggeration? Read this book and see if you still think so. I read "Fatal Deception" because a friend of mine and his wife acquired a vacation cabin in Libby, Montana a few years back. When newspaper reports began appearing about the widespread asbestos poisoning there, I asked if that was the same town. "Yep," he replied with a disgusted sigh. "We call it our own little Three Mile Island, Montana." (Fortunately, the relative who'd given them the cabin later demanded it back.)The straightforward language, excellent pacing, and suspense-building structure of "Fatal Deception" make it a hard book to put down. Author Michael Bowker skillfully weaves heartwrenching victims' stories with damning excerpts from documents proving that for over sixty years the asbestos industry and the U.S. government concealed scientific evidence that would have prevented thousands of agonizing deaths. At least as far back as the 1930s, industry higher-ups knew that exposure to asbestos was extremely dangerous. Yet not only did they fail to warn their workers, they brazenly lied and assured them all that dust they were breathing and taking home on their clothes was harmless. Faced with growing medical evidence to the contrary, the asbestos companies conspired in a long-lasting cover-up that successfully hid the truth from the public so that asbestos workers and their families wouldn't discover the dangers to which they were exposing themselves. The industry had help in this cover-up, of course, from good old Uncle Sam."Fatal Deception" is not merely a sickening portrait of coldblooded corporate greed, but a wake-up call that vividly illustrates why the U.S. government will never behave with integrity until Americans stop electing politicians willing to prostitute themselves to whichever special-interest groups stick the most money down their pants. Angry? You bet I am. By the time you finish this book, you will be, too.

This book caught my attention because my husband just died of mesothelioma. I wondered how he got it because he did not work around asbestos. I learned from the book that, contrary to my assumption, asbestos has not been banned because of the powerful influence of the asbestos industry on Congress. The book reported that many products contain asbestos - things like brake pads, floor tile, shingles, insulation that my husband came in contact with because he was a "do-it-yourselfer". And the book outraged me in describing how many companies that mined or manufactured asbestos products knew of the dangers to their employees and did nothing to protect them. The book was very informative and well documented and yet it was a real horror story of big business completely disregarding human life in the search for the almighty dollar.

Michael Bowker has done a thorough and compelling job of telling how asbestos has ravaged the American work force in the past halfcentury. 'Fatal Deception' not only provides an insider's look at the history of this dangerous mineral, but wraps it around an epic disaster which has been occurring for decades in the small town of Libby, Montana. I know this story, because I have produced a documentary on the town called 'Dust to Dust', which Michael Bowker has generously credited in his book. 'Fatal Deception' takes the reader behind the headlines and reveals the disbelief EPA investigators had until confronted with the awful truth of Libby.The book is like a good suspense novel, but unfortunately, the story is all too real.I highly recommend it.

Yes, in a way this IS a horror story! I met the author of this book shortly before it was published or I probably would have missed the book completely. I am very glad I did not miss it. "Fatal Deception" is easily read and absorbed and is a frightening look at this country's and the world's attitude about asbestos. Sadly, asbestos has & will kill many more people before anything is done about it. Why? Because it is usually a slow killer taking up to 40 years to show its' effects. Michael Bowker paints an alarming portrait of corporate murder and the cover-up of this crime by not only the asbestos industry but the government-Democrats & Republicans. Especially frightening is the chapter about the 9-11 tragedy & the asbestos from the WTC that will kill as many - or more - people as the initial disaster. Even more telling; the fact that the EPA cleaned their NY offices for asbestos contamination in full "Space Suit" gear but left other offices to fend for themselves. Sadly, it will probably take an Erin Brokovitch-type movie to move the crisis to the forefront of the American mind but this book is an excellent start.