Paul Brodeur, whose deeply reported articles in The New Yorker introduced vast nationwide consideration to topics just like the poisonous hazards of asbestos and the damaging impression of chlorofluorocarbons on the ozone layer, died on Aug. 2 in Hyannis, Mass. He was 92.

His loss of life, at a hospital, was brought on by problems of pneumonia and hip alternative surgical procedure, mentioned his daughter, the novelist and memoirist Adrienne Brodeur.

Mr. Brodeur’s first long-form article for The New Yorker, “The Magic Mineral,” revealed in 1968, described in nice size the historical past of asbestos, a heat-resistant fiber with a historical past of being utilized in 1000’s of merchandise — together with constructing and insulation supplies, rugs, potholders, roofing, army helmets and gasoline masks — and its connection to most cancers, particularly mesothelioma, amongst employees who had been uncovered to it.

“There is not an automobile, airplane, train, ship, missile or engine of any sort that does not contain asbestos in some form or other, and it has found its way into literally every building, factory, home and farm across the land,” he wrote. “And, because its minuscule fibers are eminently respirable, asbestos has also found its way into the lungs of man, where, by remaining as indestructible as it does in nature, it can wreak terrible havoc.”

It was the type of exposé that referred to as to thoughts the groundbreaking work of Rachel Carson, whose book “Silent Spring,” concerning the devastating ecological impression of pesticides and pesticides like DDT, had been serialized in three components in The New Yorker in 1962.

William Shawn, the editor of the journal on the time, had inspired Ms. Carson, after which Mr. Brodeur, to jot down concerning the atmosphere. Mr. Brodeur continued to jot down about asbestos, most notably in two sequence over the following twenty years.

The first, unfold over 5 components in 1973, examined the impression of asbestos on employees and the failure of federal companies to maintain corporations from exposing workers to myriad well being penalties. It received The New Yorker a National Magazine Award.

The second sequence, in 1985, was about lawsuits filed by victims towards asbestos corporations, together with the Manville Corporation, the world’s largest producer, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy safety in 1982.

“He wrote in such a way that people learned what asbestos was, where it was found and how people could be exposed to it,” Dr. Richard Lemen, a former assistant United States surgeon normal, mentioned in a telephone interview. He added, “I think his reporting had a big impact on the industry; it took notice, and it had to clean up its act.”

At the start of the primary sequence, Mr. Brodeur described a dialog he had with Clarence Holder, an assistant regional administrator of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in Dallas, concerning the unsafe circumstances at a just lately shuttered asbestos insulation plant in Tyler, Texas, the place mud was so thick that employees couldn’t see throughout the constructing.

“I asked Holder if he knew that asbestos inhalation could raise not only pulmonary scarring but lung cancer, mesothelioma and other malignancies,” Mr. Brodeur wrote. “He replied that he had never heard of mesothelioma and that he doubted if there was any real proof that asbestos could cause cancer.”

The Environmental Protection Agency tried to ban the usage of asbestos use in 1989. The effort was overturned by a federal courtroom two years later, however the ruling, retained prohibitions towards new makes use of of asbestos. It continues to be used within the manufacture of family bleach, bulletproof vests, electrical insulation and automotive merchandise.

Paul Adrian Brodeur Jr. was born on May 16, 1931, in Boston and grew up in close by Arlington, Mass. His father, who fought as an artillery officer within the French Army throughout World War I, was an orthodontist and a sculptor of bronze bas-relief portraits. His mom, Sarah (Smith) Brodeur, was an actress who later grew to become a professor of early childhood schooling at Endicott College in Beverly, Mass.

After graduating from Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., Mr. Brodeur attended Harvard, the place he majored in English and graduated with a bachelor’s diploma in 1953. He then served for 2 years as an Army counterintelligence agent in Europe.

He stayed in Paris for a 12 months after his discharge and bought a brief story, “The Sick Fox,” an allegory concerning the postwar temper in Germany, to The New Yorker in 1957. He later turned it into his first novel, which was revealed in 1963.

After becoming a member of the journal’s workers in 1958, he initially wrote Talk of the Town items, commentaries and quick tales.

He had a repute at The New Yorker as a troublesome, punctilious and pugnacious reporter.

“He’s a feisty individual,” Anthony Bailey, one other workers author, told The New York Observer (now identified merely as Observer) in 2014. “He reminds me, in many ways, of the French writers of the 19th century — people like Zola, who got very worked up about justice.”

In addition to asbestos, Mr. Brodeur bought labored up about hazards like aerosol sprays and air-conditioners that emitted chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which has led to a breakdown within the ozone layer. In 1975, he was among the first to report, on the ozone layer’s depletion. In a second article, in 1986, he described the impacts of a gap within the ozone layer, together with modifications in crop yields, larger pores and skin most cancers charges and the killing of the larvae of seafood species, together with shrimp and crab.

A. Karim Ahmed, a former analysis director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, mentioned that Mr. Brodeur’s 1975 article influenced federal companies just like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Consumer Product Safety Commission as CFCs started to be phased out properly earlier than a 1987 worldwide treaty, the Montreal Protocol, began to manage the manufacturing and consumption of chemical compounds that injury the ozone layer.

“His article and our work helped give the U.S. a head start in phasing out CFCs over everyone else,” Dr. Ahmed mentioned in a telephone interview.

Mr. Brodeur additionally reported on the attainable risks of radiation from microwave ovens, pc terminals and electromagnetic energy strains. But this reporting was not as broadly accepted as his work on asbestos and CFCs.

In 1997, the National Academy of Sciences discovered little to no proof of any threat from power-line radiation. Other research have been removed from conclusive. (Mr. Brodeur famous, nonetheless, that the World Health Organization categorised microwave radiation from cellphones to be a attainable carcinogen.)

And in 2019, the science journalist William J. Broad of The Times wrote that in his 1977 guide, “The Zapping of America: Microwaves, Their Deadly Risk, and the Cover-Up,” Mr. Brodeur had relied on “suggestive but often ambiguous evidence to argue” that the rising use of the excessive frequencies of microwaves might endanger human well being.

Like “The Zapping of America,” lots of Mr. Brodeur’s nonfiction books grew out of his reporting for The New Yorker. Among them had been “Outrageous Misconduct: The Asbestos Industry on Trial” (1985); “Currents of Death” (1989); and “The Great Power-Line Cover-Up: How the Utilities and the Government Are Trying to Hide the Cancer Hazard Posed by Electromagnetic Fields” (1993).

He additionally wrote a novel, “The Stunt Man” (1970), a few younger Army deserter who turns into a stuntman for a tyrannical director; it was adapted into a film in 1980 starring Peter O’Toole because the director and Steve Railsback because the title character.

Mr. Brodeur revealed a memoir, “Secrets: A Writer in the Cold War,” in 1997.

In addition to his daughter, Mr. Brodeur is survived by his son, Stephen; three grandchildren; and his sister, Valjeanne Paxton. His marriages to Malabar Schleiter and Margaret Staats led to divorce. He had separated from his third spouse, Milane Christiansen, earlier than her loss of life in 2013. His brother, David, died in 2019. Another son, Alan, died in infancy.

Mr. Brodeur discovered when he was in faculty that he had one other brother, Adrian Paul Brodeur, from his father’s earlier marriage. He died in 1992. Paul and Adrian by no means met.

Mr. Brodeur left The New Yorker shortly after Tina Brown took over as editor in 1992.

His ultimate article was, fittingly, a reminder of Rachel Carson’s legacy.

After citing the implications for breast most cancers prevention present in a latest examine that confirmed ladies with the best publicity to DDT had been 4 instances extra more likely to develop breast most cancers than ladies with the least publicity, he concluded:

“Rachel Carson lives.”