Asbestos is a highly versatile, strong, cheap, non-flammable malleable substance that has been used in building, textiles and construction for the last 2000 years.
Asbestos is also a highly toxic airborne fibrous substance that causes a number of different incurable cancers in humans that are exposed to it. Asbestos is in many homes around the world and is still being used.
Asbestos became popular in the building industry for its natural properties and affordability – desirable physical properties:[1]sound absorption, average tensile strength, its resistance to fire, heat, electrical and chemical damage. When asbestos is used for its resistance to fire or heat, the fibers are often mixed with cement or woven into fabric or mats. These desirable properties made asbestos a very widely used material, and its use continued to grow throughout most of the 20th century until the carcinogenic (cancer-causing) effects of asbestos dust caused its effective demise as a mainstream construction and fireproofing material in most countries
So how did Asbestos become so wide spread? Where did it come from and how to we rid ourselves of the asbestos that is in more than a 3rd of the homes around the world?
Asbestos is a Naturally Occurring Mineral
Asbestos is mined straight from the ground. It is a naturally occurring mineral that can be dug out of the earths surface, with Russia as the greatest supplier or Asbestos. There are six different types of Asbestos, defined mostly by their colour.
Asbestos is mined from an open pit and looks a lot like wood in it’s raw form. After it is separated from the earth and other matter, the asbestos is processed and refined into fluffy fibres. These fibres are then mixed with a binding agent a lot like cement. Sheets and pipes made from Asbestos are not 100 percent asbestos but simply a product that contains asbestos.
Asbestos and the Industrial Revolution
Asbestos regained significant popularity as the world, specifically Great Britain, entered the Industrial Revolution. As powered machinery and steam power became more and more prevalent, so did the need for an efficient and effect way to control the heat needed to create and power the machines at the centre of the paradigm shift. Asbestos served as a perfect insulator for high-temperature products like steam pipes, turbines, ovens, and kilns; all things that helped facilitate the Industrial Revolution.
The increase in demand for asbestos sparked the first commercial asbestos mines to open in 1879 in Quebec providence of Canada. Mines opened shortly thereafter in Russia, Australia, and South Africa. By 1900, doctors started reporting lung sickness and pulmonary fibrosis in patients who had worked in asbestos textile factories and asbestos mines.
Despite the resurgence of health concerns, asbestos became very important in the United States as the railroad infrastructure was put into place. Asbestos has become an important solution to prevent heat build up and temperature fluctuation in steam powered trains, and again when the steam powered trains shifted to diesel power. By WWII, asbestos was being used in the shipping industry (as insulation to components subjected to high heat), the automobile industry (as brake and clutch lining), and in the construction industry (in a wide variety of products included insulation, siding, and cement).
Asbestos and the Industrial Revolution
During the industrial revolution asbestos rose in popularity because of it’s amazing ability to control heat. Asbestos served as a perfect insulator for high-temperature products like steam pipes, turbines, ovens, and kilns; all things that helped facilitate the Industrial Revolution and the industrialisation of production and manufacture.
The increase in demand for asbestos sparked the first commercial asbestos mines to open in 1879 in Quebec providence of Canada. It was not long after this mine opened that others were established in Russia, Australia, and South Africa. By 1900, doctors started reporting lung sickness and pulmonary fibrosis in patients who had worked in asbestos textile factories and asbestos mines.
Despite the resurgence of health concerns, asbestos became very important in the United States as the railroad infrastructure was put into place. wether the toxic risk of Asbestos was underestimated, ignored or hidden, asbestos played a huge part in the production and building of railway lines all over the world.
By WWII, asbestos was being used in the shipping industry, the automobile industry (as brake and clutch lining), and in the construction industry (in a wide variety of products included insulation, siding, and cement).