History of Asbestos

Asbestos is really a natural heat- and electricity-resistant fiber that is mined in the earth. It has been around for as lengthy as 2000 years back. The ancient Greeks named it "asbestos" meaning "inextinguishable" because fire does not consume it. They used it as wicks for that vestal virgins' eternal flames.

And even then, they had already noticed that slaves who often came in touch with asbestos developed a "sickness of the lungs. inch Nonetheless, they were so fascinated with what they considered its magical properties they turned a blind eye to its observed dangerous effects.

It is believed that Charlemagne use asbestos tablecloths throughout the middle ages.

In the late 1800s, during the actual Industrial Revolution, the use of asbestos as padding for turbines, steam pipes, boilers, kilns and additional high-temperature machines surged.

In the twentieth century, researchers started to seriously study the harmful effects of asbestos. Within 1917 and 1918, it was noticed that within towns where asbestos mining was a primary business, many young people suffered premature deaths.

It was found that after humans come in frequent contact with asbestos, the fibers enter your body either through inadvertent swallowing or inhalation. When this particular happens, the fibers cause disease in the target.

The newly discovered disease was called "asbestosis. inch

In 1931, legislation was enacted to ensure that asbestos processing industries put ample ventilation for his or her workers' work areas, and asbestosis was recognized like a work-related disease.

Despite the increasing number of released studies that showed the dangers asbestos imposed upon people's health, large companies continued to use asbestos even though safer insulation alternatives, like fiberglass, were available to change it. Up to the late 1980s, asbestos was popular in construction materials, from asbestos-cement sheeting for ceilings as well as walls, to corrugated asbestos cement used for roofing cladding.

Asbestos companies have also had their own researches on the effects of asbestos - plus they are hiding the findings of these researches to prevent their employees' lawsuits. Million dollar lawsuits have been filed by asbestos workers for that health hazards their companies have exposed them in order to. Many of these workers already have mesothelioma most cancers, and are facing certain death.