Although archaeologists have found evidence of asbestos almost 3000 years ago, the first known common uses of asbestos occurred in ancient Greece. The fibers were frequently woven into the clothing made for slaves until the fire resistant properties of the material became known. At that point, asbestos material quickly became regarded almost as valuable as gold. The Greeks also used asbestos fibers in royal clothing, table linens, and insulation for ovens. The ancient Romans were also aware of the material’s properties, using asbestos in construction, head dressings, and in table linens. The Romans would toss soiled napkins into the fire and then remove them to reveal the clean surface. The dangers of asbestos were also documented at this time. In fact, a Roman doctor named Pliny the Elder noted that the slaves who worked in asbestos mines developed a “sickness of the lung” which may well have been mesothelioma.

The history of asbestos shows that uses of asbestos began to decline after the fall of Rome. It was not until the Industrial Revolution in the late 1800s that use of asbestos really took off on a global scale. As more factories were opened, asbestos was commonly used as insulation against the high temperatures generated by the steam-powered machines. Asbestos was also used to insulate pipes, turbines, ovens and kilns. As the demand for asbestos increased, more asbestos mines were opened, and by the turn of the century, doctors were reporting illnesses of the lungs in mine workers. However, these early health concerns about the material did not slow its use as asbestos was continuously used as an insulator in the construction of trains, ships, and automobiles. It was also used in housing construction in siding, cement and insulation.

As early as the 1920’s, medical research began to show a link between asbestos and certain types of cancer. Some asbestos manufacturers took actions to hide the truth about mesothelioma-linked materials from public awareness. However, in the 1970’s the dangers of asbestos finally became known to the public, and the U.S., along with many other countries, began to create and enforce regulations that limited the use of asbestos in the interest of public health.

Unfortunately, people who worked in the industries affected by mesothelioma did not find out about their own illness until decades later. Mesothelioma victims often experience no symptoms until decades after their exposure to asbestos. By the time a diagnosis is made, victims of mesothelioma sometimes have only months to live. While taking legal action against negligent companies was initially difficult due to the many years between exposure and symptoms, courts in many states can be sympathetic to the needs of mesothelioma victims and generally supportive of their right to compensation.

Asbestos has been a highly desirable material for more than 2000 years for its fire-retardant qualities. Although lung problems were noticed in ancient Greece and by Roman slaves who wove asbestos into cloth, it wasn’t until 1924 that the first diagnosis of “asbestosis” was made following the death of a 35-year-old woman who had been working with asbestos since she was 13 years old. In the 1920’s and 30’s, medical journals began publishing the results of studies that showed links between asbestos and cancer. Since then, governments around the world have implemented laws and regulations to protect their citizens.  However, companies around the world are still manufacturing products that include asbestos or are handling products that still contain it.

Today many workers around the world are still being exposed to mesothelioma-linked materials. In Minnesota, a team of health professionals is studying deaths caused by mesothelioma among workers who mined asbestos-laced taconite in the Iron Range. These professors from the University of Minnesota have shown the incidence of death from cancer to be considerably higher than normal. They recently increased the total of deaths in 2010 to 82 from the previous 63, after tracking workers who left the state and later died from mesothelioma.

Within the same week, a group of former Scottish ship workers were successful in their case against several insurance agencies that were trying to avoid compensating the workers for damages associated with exposure to asbestos in the shipyards. The companies were attempting to overturn the Damages Act of 2009 (an Act of the Scottish Parliament), which allows patients suffering from pleural plaques to file claims for compensation. These pleural plaques are malformations of lung tissue that develop around asbestos fibers and may later develop into mesothelioma. The insurance companies claim that the pleural plaques present no symptoms and therefore cause no physical harm, therefore requiring no compensation, as damages are nonexistent. Advocates of the act claim that the compensation is necessary, as many of these patients are aware that their condition could may develop into mesothelioma, requiring a great deal of expense to cover mesothelioma treatment and therapy.

In Australia, a group of shipyard workers complained that the ship they were working on contained a large amount of asbestos in the gasket material. The workers claim to have been exposed for up to 24 hours. Apparently the boat, a tugboat, was built in China, where uses of asbestos are frequent.

So far, some industries’ regulations of asbestos use have not accounted for the reality that China and other countries are  mining asbestos and exporting it. A combination of inconsistent regulations, global trade and the challenges of enforcement make it very difficult to protect workers in some areas and industries around the world.

Asbestos is a naturally-occurring substance made from one of six silicate minerals, which have now been banned due to their link with many health complications, most notably mesothelioma.

Asbestos use has been traced back at least 4,500 years to Finland for strengthening earthenware pots and cooking utensils. The use of asbestos became commonplace between the turn of the 20^th century and the late 1970s in industrial capacities. It was also used in brake pads until the mid-1990s.

There are four methods for asbestos disposal; the EPA suggests all methods should be performed by a properly-licensed asbestos abatement company, and any intact asbestos not be touched. Knowing whether a product contains asbestos is not easy unless it’s properly labeled.

The most dangerous method of asbestos removal is dry stripping.  This involves simply removing the asbestos without any amount of moisture. While a simple method, dry stripping can produce a large amount of dust and may release toxins.

High-pressured water removal is a popular method, using the water to force the asbestos away from the people doing the removal. This method is usually reserved for industrial spaces that are hard to reach.

A technique for home asbestos removal is controlled wet stripping, performed by injecting warm water into asbestos with specialized needles. This effectively weighs down the material, which also helps control the amount of dust released.

Another asbestos-removal method is hot stripping. This technique includes the use of a ventilation system along with hot air. By blowing the asbestos fibers with the hot air, any residue can be directed toward a powerful ventilation system.

However, in some cases asbestos material is not removed, but rather encased.

In many countries, asbestos is typically disposed of as hazardous waste in landfill sites. In the United States, OSHA regulations require a sign stating that the hazardous waste or landfill site contains asbestos.

For more information check out our Mesothelioma articles on the laws and regulations concerning asbestos materials.

Mesothelioma is a potentially brutal cancer that targets the pleural lining of the stomach and lungs of its victims.  It’s a relatively rare disease, with somewhere between seven and 40 people per 1,000,000 in the US.  However, for those who suffer from it, it’s a devastating illness.  What’s more, it’s one that can often easily be prevented, but by the time symptoms manifest themselves, it’s too late.

In the United States, mesothelioma is most often associated with asbestos exposure.  Rates for naturally occurring mesothelioma, that is, mesothelioma caused by factors other than asbestos exposure, is rarer, occurring with the frequency of about one per 1,000,000.  The reason asbestos affects many more people than would be naturally afflicted is because of the widespread use of asbestos in a variety of industries, such as the construction and shipbuilding industries.

Asbestos was so used because the properties this low-density, feathery mineral exhibited were useful for a variety of applications.  For example, in the construction industry, asbestos was often mixed with concrete.  This made the concrete both lighter and stronger.  In addition to directly improving the material, the addition of asbestos to concrete also reduced the amount of concrete needed to build structures.  That, in turn, lowered transportation costs.

Asbestos was also often used for purposes of insulation.  Since it was light and fibrous, asbestos trapped significant amounts of air.  This made it very effective at keeping temperatures stable.  This property, combined with its lightweight nature, made it especially prized on ships, where weight was a premium.  On board, it was used to insulate pipes and boilers while contributing nominal gain to the ship’s overall mass.

Its widespread use, however, meant that a great number of people came in contact with it.  That, in turn, meant that a great number of people were put at risk for contracting mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma, despite its reputation as a killer, doesn’t receive as much attention as other cancers.  A lot of that has to do with its comparative rarity: In the United States, for example, between seven and 40 people per 1,000,000 population contract the disease.  That’s a rate lower than many other more well-known cancers.  Unfortunately, mesothelioma also has a lower rate of survival than many of those aforementioned diseases.  Thus, it may warrant more attention than it currently gets, if only to raise awareness about how it’s contracted.

According to a recent blog post we came across on the Mesothelioma Resource Center, the Lung Cancer Alliance has put together an event designed to raise awareness about malignant mesothelioma.  The event, called Shine a Light, is an annual vigil conceived to highlight many of the dangers of lung cancer.  Malignant mesothelioma falls into the category of “dangerous lung cancer.”

Earlier, we mentioned raising awareness about how mesothelioma is contracted.  One answer to that is that mesothelioma is often the result of asbestos exposure.  The history of asbestos and its relationship with humans a long one.  Societies from the ancient Greeks all the way up to recent times employed asbestos in a variety of ways.

The uses of asbestos in this century was predominantly centered around the shipbuilding and construction industries.  That’s because asbestos, as a mineral, has excellent fire-retardant and insulation capabilities.  It could be mixed with concrete to increase the strength and lessen the density of the construction material, which lowered construction and transportation costs.  It could also be used as a lightweight insulation material on pipes and around boilers in ships, vessels where weight comes at a very high premium indeed.

Unfortunately, asbestos, when inhaled, can eventually lead to mesothelioma or asbestosis, both of which are devastating diseases.  In addition, mesothelioma has no known cure.

The history of asbestos use is a long and storied one marred by consistent tragedy.  The asbestos industry has been around, in one form or another, since antiquity.  Ancient Greeks mined the mineral for many uses, initially using it as a fabric supplement in the clothes of slaves.  As time went on, the ancient Greeks began to realize the extent of the mineral’s fire-resistant properties.  When they discovered this, asbestos began to become considered a more valuable commodity, and it was woven into the clothes of royalty, along with napkins and tablecloths.

Interestingly, the Greeks also began using it for insulation in construction and in ovens, which roughly mirrors how asbestos was used in modern times.  They also observed how slaves mining the mineral would take ill, the first of many such links between asbestos and diseases like mesothelioma.

The Romans also used asbestos for similar purposes.  Like the Greeks, they used asbestos in the creation of fine napkins and tablecloths, which proved particularly useful, since cleaning of the materials simply involved throwing them in a fire and removing them like-new.  Pliny the Elder, around this time, noted the “sickness of the lung” that afflicted many miners laboring in asbestos mines and discouraged others from buying slaves who had a history of working in the mines.

These dangers were apparent to ancient Romans like Pliny the Elder, but asbestos remained in widespread use throughout antiquity, through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and into the modern age.  Even today, asbestos is mined, and finds many applications in the contemporary world.  Recent uses have included widespread adoption within the construction and shipbuilding industries due to the very same flame retardant properties of asbestos that so enticed the Greeks and Romans of old.

We’ll continue our overview of the history of asbestos in a subsequent blog post.

Asbestos is typically found in a fiber-like form and is a naturally occurring, fire-resistant mineral. Because it doesn’t conduct electricity, and because it increases the tensile strength of concrete when mixed in, asbestos is valuable for industrial purposes like insulation for pipes, buildings and boilers. Asbestos is not immediately dangerous when it remains in good condition. But if it’s “friable,” a term for asbestos that can be reduced to dust by a small amount of hand pressure, then asbestos becomes dangerous once it’s disturbed and released asbestos particles into the air.

What happens when asbestos is disturbed is that the bundles of fibers of which it is composed break into dust clouds of microscopic asbestos particles, and these particles enter the air or water. They can also stick to clothing, where they can easily be inhaled or swallowed. When asbestos particles are inside the lungs, the body is unable to break them down. So after many years, these particles begin to eat away at the lungs and lining of the lungs. As a result, a victim can get cancer like lung cancer or Mesothelioma.

Let’s talk about the history of asbestos. Found all over the world, asbestos is a metamorphic mineral. According to historians, it was named by the ancient Greeks, who even then were aware of asbestos’ harmful effects — slaves who wove it into cloth suffered lung damage.

In the 1940s, shipyards used asbestos for insulation around piping. Commonly applied to pillars, walls and ceilings in a spray form, asbestos was used in construction projects between the middle of the Great Depression and the 1970s. The most popular use was as a cement additive, since the addition of asbestos made cement stronger, resulting in construction companies having to transport less cement and save money.

Quebec, Canada was home to the first commercial asbestos mines, and for years Canada was asbestos’ leading producer. China, Australia, Russia and South Africa today compete with Canada in the production of asbestos.

This is a very brief history of asbestos, but if you’d like to know more about asbestos exposure and Mesothelioma, feel free to call 1-888-370-0121.