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Comment by asfasgasg | Hacker News Reader

Counterexamples: asbestos, tobacco, alcohol, fossil fuels, climate change.

(On the latter two, the studies mostly have the correct outcome. What is difficult is convincing half of the American population that that matters.)

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Tobacco is definitely not a counter example; the industry managed to cover up / confuse the evidence for years.

Who has supported the asbestos industry? Has there ever been a company that actually promotes asbestos?

Yes, in fact asbestos is still mined and marketed today: https://youtu.be/cy3piCUPIkc

Only white asbestos (also known as Chrysotile) --- and the great number of people who have been exposed to large amounts of it and lived long healthy lives certainly makes one wonder; AFAIK it's only the other types, particularly blue asbestos, which are unanimously carcinogenic and the industry stopped using them a long time ago, but the effects from that (and contamination of white asbestos with the other types) have continued and led the majority of fears.

This article is worth reading: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3581056/

In the case of Mesothelioma I believe there's a fair amount of evidence that you need both : 1) Asbestos exposure and 2) to be a smoker. This might explain why some people exposed to asbestos remain healthy.

https://www.mesothelioma.com/blog/authors/staff/smoking-asbe...

Well, um, definitely yes.

https://www.pinterest.com/braytonpurcell/vintage-asbestos-ad...

Not a company exactly, but: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POB3Dr0uonc&t=75

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