"Asbestos has tragically affected communities throughout the world, largely through its effects on workers. This powerful history is presented with dramatic flair in the new investigative book by Andrew Schneider and David McCumber. An Air That Kills provides a compelling update on what should now be a closed chapter in occupational health in the United States. More remarkably, it also asserts the potential impact of the long-feared environmental health disaster arising from negligent use of asbestos. This book explores new territory in nonoccupational asbestos exposure.
The book records the history of some of the heroes of occupational medicine in the United States and also names some of the "black hats." It also addresses risk and risk reduction related to nonoccupational exposure to asbestos. Here it lands on thin ice, and may even fall through it by omitting results of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) survey that could validate its thesis, as well as by making some extreme statements. Schneider and McCumber note that the federal government "did the biggest public health survey in its history. A third of the town got the 'death sentence.'"

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