Asbestos: a History of Asbestos Exposure

Although asbestos became a popular engineering material during the seventeen hundreds, its special heat resistant properties had been known for a long time. In the present day we recognise that exposure to asbestos can pose a severe threat to health and consequently it is rarely, if ever, used in industrial processes.

The danger is due to the fibrous nature of the material. Asbestos fibres break up into microfibers that are just the right size to get trapped in the lung when asbestos dust is inhaled. Once there, they do considerable damage to surrounding cells, often causing them to start cancers. The always fatal cancer is known as mesothelioma, and the nearly always fatal cancer is the same cancer that is associated with smoking. Less serious, though highly disabling, diseases associated with inhaling asbestos dust are asbestosis and pleural scaring.

Even the ancient Greeks were a little concerned that their slaves who worked with asbestos were subject to breathing difficulties, and the risks of the material were certainly recognised during the days of the industrial revolution. Gradually governments became aware of the dangers, and during the nineteen thirties some preventative measures were taken. Once it had been recognised that there were dangers associated with the material, mesothelioma compensation (mesothelioma is a disease of the lung associated with breathing asbestos fibres) claims followed. These were vigorously opposed by the asbestos industry which continued to maintain that their workers were not subjected to unreasonable dangers. The battle continued for many years, in fact until recent times; however the use and disposal of asbestos is now controlled strictly by legislation.