History of Asbestos

Asbestos in ancient times

For as long as asbestos has been known, so have the dangers associated with it. The Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder wrote in the first century AD about the “miracle mineral” that was impervious to fire yet was so delicate and fine that it could be woven and spun as easily as cotton. But he also recognized the hazards of the material, cautioning his fellow citizens against purchasing slaves who worked with asbestos, as they tended to die young. The Romans called asbestosis the “disease of slaves.”

The ancients made use of asbestos for lantern wicks and for strengthening materials such as pottery and textiles. But use of the material in the historical record seems to have faded after that, with the notable exception of Marco Polo, who was said to be introduced to it on his travels in Asia.

Charlemagne famously tossed his asbestos tablecloth into the flames of the fireplace at the end of his meals to burn off the food droppings and purify the cloth for the next meal.

Asbestos in the industrial age

Asbestos was rediscovered in the late nineteenth century as modern industrialists found a multitude of uses for the mineral. Asbestos’ boom was unstoppable, even as the first reports of lung disease among asbestos workers and their families began to emerge as early as 1897. One early asbestos pioneer was Henry Wards Johns, who started the H. W. Johns Manufacturing Company in 1850. His thriving company promised to make homes fireproof, a claim that set off a blaze of interest in asbestos and set sales on an upward trajectory that would not cease for well over a century. Johns would eventually die of asbestosis, and his company would become Johns-Manville, the largest asbestos manufacturer in the United States.

 

Asbestos in Navy ships

The U.S. Navy grew its fleet from about 400 ships in 1939 to over 6800 ships in 1945. Most of these ships contained asbestos to fireproof pipes, boilers, engine, turbines and hulls. It was reported that working conditions in the shipyards were worse than in the civilian asbestos plants. Despite the known risks of the material, the military and government, along with the finely tuned strategy of concealment and denial by the asbestos industry became the catalysts that propelled the asbestos industry to new heights in the military and civilian industries after the war. By the mid-1940s, the dangers of asbestos were removed from the mind of industry and the American public, and it became, once again the “miracle mineral.”

With no legal restrictions to impede its use, asbestos found its way into countless products from the 1940s to the 1970s. Cheap and strong, the material was not only used for widely-known applications such as insulation, fireproofing and tiles, it was also used as a filler for a surprising array of consumer products such as golf balls, hair dryers, crock pots and much more. Asbestos was even used as an ingredient in cigarette filters in the 1950s.

Asbestos laws and the decline of asbestos

In the early 1960s, medical researcher Dr. Irving Selikoff became the first outspoken public figure linking asbestos exposure to serious disease. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, asbestos attorneys won a series of mesothelioma lawsuits against negligent corporations who willfully put their workers and the public at risk for mesothelioma and other asbestos related diseases. Asbestos litigation hit its peak in 1999. (You can read our history of asbestos laws here.)

Asbestos Today

Despite the triumphs of the asbestos attorneys, the past few decades has seen little in the way of political victories. Asbestos is now banned in over 60 countries worldwide, including the nations of the European Union. Most Americans mistakenly believe that asbestos was banned decades ago. While the EPA was successful in getting asbestos banned in 1989, the ban was overturned on a technicality in 1992, and the mineral, while heavily regulated, remains legal in the U.S.

Asbestos exposure is now a major and growing problem in the developing world. Major asbestos producing nations such as Canada and Russia export large amounts of asbestos to developing countries with poor safety standards such as India and China to fill the huge demand for cheap and effective building materials. Asbestos experts fear that the developing world is poised for the same health catastrophe that the United States has experienced in the past 50 years.

Asbestos attorneys are here to help you

Asbestos laws can be complex. If you or someone close to you has been affected by an asbestos-related disease, don’t wait to file a claim. An asbestos attorney can help you navigate the complexities of asbestos law to get the asbestos settlement your family needs to help pay their expenses, including medical bills.

Although nothing can ever truly compensate for loss of health or life, our asbestos attorneys are devoted to getting you the justice you deserve.