History of Asbestos
Asbestos has been used for more than 2,000 years. It was named by the Ancient Greeks, its name meaning "inextinguishable". The Greeks also noted its harmful biological effects. Even though the Greek geographer Strabo and the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder both observed the "sickness of the lungs" in the slaves that wove asbestos into cloth, they were in such awe of asbestos' seemingly magical properties that they ignored the symptoms.
The Greeks used asbestos for the wicks of the eternal flames of the vestal virgins, as the funeral dress for the cremation of kings, and as napkins. It is rumored that Romans would clean asbestos napkins by throwing them in the fire. The asbestos cloth would come out of the fire whiter than it went in, so the Romans named asbestos "amiantus", meaning "unpolluted".
Use of asbestos declined during the Middle Ages, yet some say that Charlemagne had asbestos tablecloths. Marco Polo was also shown items made from asbestos cloth on his travels.
Asbestos use was brought back in the 1700s, but did not become popular until the Industrial Revolution during the late 1800s. It then began to be used as insulation for steam pipes, turbines, boilers, kilns, ovens, and other high-temperature products. Ancient observations of the health risks of asbestos were either forgotten or ignored.
At the turn of the twentieth century, researchers began to notice a large number of deaths and lung problems in asbestos mining towns. In 1917 and 1918, it was observed by several studies in the United States that asbestos workers were dying unnaturally young.
The first diagnosis of asbestosis was made in 1924. A woman had been working with asbestos since she was thirteen. She died when she was thirty-three years old, and an English doctor determined that the cause of death was what he called "asbestosis". Because of this, a study was done on asbestos workers in England. Twenty-five percent of them showed evidence of asbestos-related lung disease. Laws were passed in 1931 to increase ventilation and to make asbestosis an excusable work-related disease. It would take the United States ten more years to make these steps.
In the 1930s major medical journals began to publish articles that linked asbestos to cancer. The re-discovery of asbestos-related diseases were put on the back burner for several years due to the emergence of silicosis (a lung disease caused by silica dust inhalation). The affected workers brought $300 million in lawsuits against their employers. This served as a warning to the asbestos companies, and afterwards they tried to cover up the health effects of asbestos. Asbestos companies continued to use asbestos in manufacturing and construction. Despite that many materials, such as fiberglass insulation, were created to replace asbestos, companies that used asbestos ignored the safer alternatives. They ignored the danger for the sake of profits, much like the tobacco industry. The conduct of the asbestos companies is especially egregious, however, because the victims were largely exploited workers who were unaware of the serious health risks they were exposed to on a daily basis.
The following statements were taken from an attorneys website, the confusion is the word banned. The ban of asbestos is still not here yet, so it is vitally important that you sign the petition to ban all asbestos today. Their numbers are very conservative, it has been extremely hard to determined the amount of exposure due to incorrect diagnosis or improper cause of death listed on death certificates.
The use of the material has been banned in the United States since approximately 1975, but about 8 million Americans may already have been exposed through various jobs, such as miners, ship builders, factory and railroad workers, mechanics and construction workers (particularly those responsible for installing brakes in automobiles and insulation in buildings). Many men who served in the Navy were exposed to significant amounts of asbestos on their ships.
Asbestos is not only found in the workplace. It may still be found in 10-15% of schools (about 110,000) throughout America. The asbestos fibers have also been known to be picked up through clothing or other articles. After exposure to the airborne fibers, the risk of lung cancer is 7 times greater than that of the general population (smokers who are exposed to asbestos have a risk 50-90 times greater yet).
Not all workers exposed to asbestos will develop diseases related to their exposure. In fact, many will experience no ill effects.
Asbestos that is bonded into finished products such as walls, tiles, and pipes poses no risk to health as long as it is not damaged or disturbed (for example, by sawing or drilling) in such a way as to release fibers into the air. When asbestos particles are set free and inhaled, however, exposed individuals are at risk of developing an asbestos-related disease. Once these fibers work their way into body tissues, they may stay there indefinitely.
The risk of developing asbestos-related diseases varies with the type of industry in which the asbestos exposure occurred and with the extent of the asbestos exposure. In addition, different types of asbestos fibers may be associated with different health risks. For example, results of several studies suggest that exposure to amphibole forms of asbestos are more likely than exposure to chrysotile asbestos form to cause lung cancer, asbestosis, and, in particular, mesothelioma. Even so, no fiber type can be considered harmless, and proper safety precautions should always be taken by people that work under asbestos exposure.
Mesothelioma is almost always precipitated by exposure to asbestos—on the job or otherwise. In many cases, very little exposure is required, but those jobs most often associated with asbestos exposure such as auto mechanic, boilermaker, insulator, and sailor (navy and merchant marines) impose a much higher risk of mesothelioma.
Massive amounts of asbestos were used in shipbuilding and commercial construction prior to the mid-1970's. Anyone involved with those industries is at a high risk for developing an asbestos-related disease, including mesothelioma.
A unique feature of asbestos-related disease is the long latency period between exposure and the onset of the disease. For mesothelioma the average latency period is 35-40 years. According to the National Cancer Institute, approximately 3,000 cases of mesothelioma are reported annually in the United States alone.
The NCI also estimates that 8 million people have been exposed to asbestos on the job in the past 50 years. These figures indicate the probability of 300,000 new mesothelioma cases diagnosed by 2030. This is only the number of incidents that are reported through work exposure not all of the second hand exposures.