We have known for more than 50 years that asbestos causes lung cancer. During World War II, Ship workers fireproofed ships by spraying them with asbestos and as a result, suffered a very high incidence of lung cancer several years later. Those who also smoked were most likely to get lung cancer. When particles get into your lungs, special glands lining thee bronchial tubes that carry air to and from you lungs produce large amounts of mucous. Then small hairs called cilia, lining the bronchial tubes, sweep in rhythm and move the particles and the mucous up to your mouth where you swallow both and they are cleared from your body.
Asbestos looks like barbed wire under a microscope.
Its particles stick to the linings of the lungs by their barbs, which prevents the cilia from sweeping the asbestos to your mouth. Smoking paralyzes the cilia and then destroys them so you can't remove these barbed particles from your lungs. Unfortunately, talcum, which is ground stone, looks just like asbestos under the microscope, so its barbs stick to the bronchial tube linings in the same way that asbestos sticks and therefore, can also cause cancer. On the basis of the cumulative research over the last 40 years, you should stop using talcum to powder your body. LS Cook, ML Kamb, NS Weiss.