Asbestos Overview
Asbestos is ubiquitous in the natural environment, so much so that an estimated two-thirds of the earth’s crust contains at least a small amount of the mineral. Asbestos is known to have been used by several ancient civilizations, including the Greeks and the Romans. In fact, it was the Greeks who gave asbestos its name, and it was Roman writer and philosopher Pliny the Elder who first noted that slaves who worked with asbestos often developed lung diseases. Asbestos has been part of life for centuries, but it wasn’t until the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century that asbestos use became heavily prevalent in many industrial sectors.
Uses of Asbestos
Asbestos is a unique material, considered something of a miracle substance due to its extremely high industrial utility. Asbestos has several physical and chemical properties which have made it enormously useful – it does not dissolve in water or even in acid, it is fire-proof, and it is durable and very strong (with a higher tensile strength than that of steel). Just as important is the fact that asbestos can confer many of those properties on almost any substance it is mixed with, such as concrete. Perhaps more importantly to industry, asbestos is extremely cheap to produce, and cheap to use in manufacturing.
As a result, the asbestos industry flourished in the twentieth century. By the 1950s it was being used in the manufacture of a wide variety of construction materials, as well as fire-proof fabric and protective clothing, brake pad linings, electrical appliances, and friction-resistant material for industrial machinery. Asbestos products were commonplace in ship-building, construction, and many industrial settings.
There are six types of asbestos: actinolite, amosite, anthoplyllite, crocidolite, chrysotile, and tremolite, each with slightly different properties and uses. Chrysotile asbestos was by far the most widely used, due to its more flexible structure, accounting for approximately 95% of all asbestos used in construction in America.
The Dangers of Asbestos
The above-noted physical and chemical properties which made it so highly prized in industry are, ironically, what make asbestos a health hazard. Asbestos fibers are so tiny—many thinner than a human hair—that they become airborne very easily. Once airborne, they can be inhaled, and once inhaled, they are highly dangerous.
When asbestos fibers are inhaled, they tend to become trapped within delicate lung tissue, because the body cannot break them down or remove them. Over time, they cause chronic inflammation and irritation in delicate lung tissue. Heavy exposure to airborne asbestos can cause chronic lung conditions such as asbestosis, while it has been suggested by some experts than inhalation of even a few asbestos fibers may be able to cause mesotheilioma in a susceptible individual.
Asbestos Exposure Risks
Asbestos was used in so many different industries during the twentieth century that the list of people who face exposure risks is a long one.
- Construction workers of almost any kind were at risk prior to the 1980s, even if their work did not specifically involve asbestos. An exposure risk may still be present if others in the vicinity used asbestos-containing products.
- Demolition workers – if their work involves older buildings which were built or repairs with asbestos products.
- Shipyard workers – particularly during the war years, but also after if their work involved repairing older ships.
- People serving in armed forces, including Navy, Air Force, and Military
- Anyone who has used asbestos fabric. This may include firemen, people working in theatres (asbestos fire curtains), and even laboratory workers (due to the use of asbestos in burner mats and fire-proof gloves).
- Miners (due to the possibility of trace asbestos contamination).
- The list of factory workers at risk is almost endless due to the wide range of industries which used asbestos parts in machinery, and the array of products which contained asbestos.
- People working with asbestos did not always have access to protective clothing. In such cases their clothing was often contaminated with asbestos, which put other household members at risk.
Asbestos in America
During the latter half of the twentieth century, more and more people were afflicted with asbestosis and mesotheilioma. As the dangers of asbestos slowly became public knowledge many countries began to ban certain types of asbestos. The use of chrysotile asbestos has been banned in the European Union and Australia, for example.
Despite the undeniable knowledge of the dangers of asbestos, it was not until July 12, 1989 that the Environmental Protection Agency banned asbestos use in the U.S.
Incredibly, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned much of the ban in 1991. As a result, few asbestos products are officially banned in America. Many products are legally allowed to contain traces of asbestos.
