The Historic Usage of Asbestos

Asbestos was named by the ancient Greeks who also recognized certain hazards of the material. The Greek geographer Strabo and the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder noted that the material damaged lungs of slaves who wove it into cloth. Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, is said to have had a tablecloth made of asbestos.

Wealthy Persians, who bought asbestos imported over the Hindu Kush, amazed guests by cleaning the cloth by simply exposing it to fire.

Some archeologists believe that ancients made shrouds of asbestos, wherein they burned the bodies of their kings, in order to preserve only their ashes, and prevent their being mixed with those of wood or other combustible materials commonly used in funeral pyres. Others assert that the ancients used asbestos to make perpetual wicks for lamps. In more recent centuries, asbestos was indeed used for this purpose. Although asbestos causes the skin to itch upon contact, ancient literature indicates that it was prescribed for diseases of the skin, and particularly for the itch. It is possible that they used the term asbestos for alumen plumosum, because the two terms have often been confused throughout history.

Asbestos became more widespread during the industrial revolution; in the 1860s it was used as insulation in the U.S. and Canada. Development of the first commercial asbestos mine began in 1879 in the Appalachian foothills of Quebec. By the mid 20th century uses included asbestos fire retardant coatings, asbestos concrete, asbestos bricks, asbestos pipes and asbestos fireplace cement, heat, fire, and asbestos acid resistant gaskets, asbestos pipe insulation, asbestos ceiling insulation, asbestos fireproof drywall, asbestos flooring, asbestos roofing, asbestos lawn furniture, and asbestos drywall joint compound.

Approximately 100,000 people in the United States have died, or will die, from asbestos exposure related to ship building. In the Hampton Roads area, a shipbuilding center, mesothelioma occurrence is seven times the national rate. Thousands of metric tons of asbestos were used in World War II ships to wrap the pipes, line the boilers, and cover engine and turbine parts. There were approximately 4.3 million shipyard workers in the United States during WWII; for every thousand workers about fourteen died of mesothelioma and an unknown number died from asbestosis.

Asbestos fibers were once used in automobile brake pads and shoes. Since the mid-1990s, a majority of brake pads, new or replacement, have been manufactured instead with linings made of ceramic, carbon, metallic and Aramid fiber (Twaron or Kevlar—the same material used in bulletproof vests).

Kent, the first filtered cigarette on the market, used crocidolite asbestos in its "Micronite" filter from 1952 to 1956.

The first documented death related to asbestos was in 1906. In the early 1900s researchers began to notice a large number of early deaths and lung problems in asbestos mining towns. The first diagnosis of asbestosis was made in England in 1924. By the 1930s, England regulated ventilation and made asbestosis an excusable work related disease, about ten years sooner than the U.S. The term Mesothelioma was not used in medical literature until 1931, and was not associated with asbestos until sometime in the 1940s.

• 400 BC; Asbestos was used for wicks in lamps and candles. The substance was known as “asbestos”, meaning inextinguishable or unquenchable.
• 1300-1400; Marco Polo visited an asbestos mine in China in the later part of the 13th Century. He concluded that asbestos was a stone and lay to rest the myth that asbestos was the hair of a woolly lizard.
• Early 1712; Chrysotile was mined in Russia during the reign of Peter the Great.
• 1724; Benjamin Franklin brought a purse made of asbestos to England. The purse is now in the Natural History Museum.
• 1805; Blue asbestos (Crocidolite) was first discovered in Orange, (South Africa) and was originally named wool stone.
• 1850; Chrysotile first discovered in Quebec at the Thedford mines.
• Early 1870’s; founding of large asbestos industries in Scotland, Germany and England with the production of ‘asbestos board’.
• 1870’s; The modern asbestos industry commenced in Canada and USSR, when large deposits of Chrysotile were extensively exploited.
• 1880; The American asbestos industry is founded with the use of Italian asbestos to manufacture asbestos paper and board.
• 1896; First asbestos brake linings were made by Ferodo Ltd in England. Made by impregnating woven asbestos brake bands with resin.
• 1897; Viennese physician wrote than emaciation and pulmonary problems left no doubt that asbestos dust inhalation was the cause.
• 1899; First patent for the manufacture of asbestos cement sheet in Germany.
• 1900; Commencement of mining of Anthophylite in Finland.
• 1907; Amosite (brown asbestos) discovered in Transvaal, South Africa. The word Amosite derived from an acronym of “Asbestos Mines of South Africa” from the Amosa mine.
• 1913; First asbestos pipes developed in Italy.
• 1919; Standard corrugated sheet introduced in Australia by Hardies.
• 1920’s; Large asbestos companies experimented on ways of weaving asbestos. Succeeded but Chrysotile and Crocidolite were the only fibres to be woven commercially. Crocidolite being most exclusively used for the manufacture of asbestos mattresses for steam trains.
• 1931; Asbestos industry regulations were passed in the UK to address concerns that asbestos exposure, particularly among textile factory workers led to lung damage.
• 1939; In the film “The Wizard of Oz”, the Wicked Witch of the West appeared on a broom made of asbestos. 
• 1945-1975; Post-war construction projects relied heavily on the use of asbestos reaching an all-time high in 1973.
• 1960’s; Health concerns begin to surface in the US and UK after studies revealed that low levels of asbestos exposure could be more dangerous than previously thought.
• 1990’s; The solid fuel boosters of the Space Shuttle are insulated with asbestos. One of the few remaining current uses.
• 1992; Some use of Chrysotile prohibited.
• 1995; Recognition that building workers, plumbers, carpenters and electricians are now among the largest high risk group, (Professor Peto article the ‘Lancet’).
• 1997; Asbestos thought to be in around 3,000 different products.
• 1998; Council of Europe adopts report recommending that all forms of asbestos are banned in 40 member states.
• 1998; An asbestos stripper was jailed for nine months for dumping 300 bags of asbestos around Birmingham.
• 1998; Health and Safety Commission HSC propose to amend asbestos regulations.
• 1999; The use of Chrysotile in all building materials is prohibited in the UK, as with most other uses.
• 1999; Commercial buildings built before 24th November 1999 need an asbestos survey.
• 2002; Health and Safety Commission amend asbestos regulation to include a specific duty for employers and thus in control of buildings to manage asbestos – (Regulation 4 CAWR 2002).
• 2005; Chrysotile will be prohibited across all member states, (Crocidolite and Amosite are already banned).