Assignment #7 - Asbestos

According to Roberta Barbalace from EnvironmentalChemistry.com Asbestos is a naturally occuring mineral with long fibrous crystals. Wikipedia stated that the Greeks used to believe that Asbestos was a miracle mineral because it was soft and contained pliant properties, as well as it’s ability to withstand heat. Asbestos became increasingly popular among manufacturers and builders in the late 19th century due to it’s resistance to heat and it’s tensile strength. Asbestos can be used in heat resistance products, electric ovens in the past, hotplate wiring and in buildings for it’s flame-retardant capabilities. There are six different minerals that are defined as “asbestos” including: chrysotile, amosite, cricidolite, tremolite, anthophyllite and actinolite.
As found on HealthDangers.com the "history of Asbestos is long and scientists have found that it has been around and used for hundreds possibly thousands of years.
Prior to 1900 – Greeks and Romans have discovered that slaves involved in the weaving of asbestos cloth were afflicted with a sickness of the lungs
1900s-1910s – London doctor H. Montague Murray conducted a post mortem exam on a young asbestos factory worker who died in 1899. Dr. Murray gave testimony on this death in connection with an industrial disease compensation hearing. Post-moretem findings showed presence of asbestos in the lung tissue. Dr. Murry believed that the inhalation of asbestos had at least contributed to, if not actually caused the death of the worker.
1920s-1930s - Widespread recognition of the occupational risks of asbestos in Britain was reported in 1924 by a Dr. Cooke, a pathologist, who introduced a case description of a 33-year old female asbestos worker with the following: 'Medical men in areas where asbestos is manufactured have long suspected the dust to be the cause of chronic bronchitis and fibrosis..." Dr. Cooke then went on to report on a case in 1927 involving a 33-year old male worker who was the only survivor out of ten workers in an asbestos carding room. In the report he named the disease "asbestosis". The first known US workers' compensation claim for asbestos disease was in 1927. In 1930, the first reported autopsy of an asbestosis sufferer was conducted in the United states and later presented by a doctor at the Mayo Clinic, although in this case the exposure involved mining activities somewhere in South America.
1950s - In 1951, asbestos companies removed all references to cancer before allowing publication of research they sponsored. In 1952, Dr. Kenneth Smith, Johns-Manville medical director, recommended (unsuccessfully) that warning labels be attached to products containing asbestos.
1960s - early 1980s - Through the 1970s, asbestos was used to fireproof roofing and flooring, for heat insulation, and for a variety of other purposes
Mondern Regulation - In 1989 the United States EPA issued the Asbestos Ban and Phase Out Rule."
"A brief history of Asbestos use." Environmental Chemistry. 17 Mar. 2009 environmentalchemistry.com
AD, the first century," Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 17 Mar. 2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/asbestos."History of Asbestos."
Health Dangers.com 17 Mar. 2009 .