Need to know about Asbestos?

Asbestos occurs in nature and has been used by people for its very special properties since the times of the ancient Greeks. Although nowadays it is recognised as an extremely dangerous material that is capable of causing severe and often fatal disease, even the ancient Greeks recognised some of its dangers.

The reason asbestos is so dangerous is because of its physical structure. The material is fibrous, and asbestos dust consists mainly of microfibers that can become lodged in the lung when inhaled. These fibres damage the cells of the membrane that lines the lung and it is this damage that can cause various cancers and other respiratory conditions.

There are two forms of cancer that are associated with asbestos. These are mesothelioma and bronchial cancer. The former is a cancer of the mesothelium which is the lung lining. The non-cancerous conditions associated with asbestos exposure are asbestosis and pleural thickening. These diseases can be very disabilitating and there is always the danger that they might develop into cancer or mesothelioma sometime in the future.

It is shameful that industry made so little effort to protect the workers from exposure to asbestos dust. It is not as though the dangers were recently discovered; in fact even the ancient Greeks recognised that slaves who wove the material into cloth were subject to dreadful diseases of the lung. In more modern times the fact that exposure to asbestos represented serious health problems was reported in the late eighteen hundreds.

It was not until the 1930's that any precautions were taken to protect workers from the effects of the material. The first asbestos claim dates back to 1933. Despite this the industry fought a rearguard action, claiming that the material was not dangerous. This has analogies with the more recent actions of the tobacco industry.

The battle between industrial profits and issues concerning the health of asbestos workers continued until recent times. It was not until the 1980's that the industry really tidied up its act. Asbestos remains a lurking menace as there can be a considerable delay between exposure and onset of the disease.