This mineral used for a suite of industrial purposes can resist fire, water, weather, and chemicals. It doesn’t decay, rot, or fall victim to other pests.
Its properties are unique, incredibly useful, and have never been perfectly duplicated synthetically.
And right now, a mining company in western Russia sells it branded with Donald Trump’s face.
Of course it causes cancer.
Today’s Moment of Science… what are asbestos, Alex?
Asbestos is a blanket term for a group of minerals that have been used for about 4,500 years for its unique physical properties. Abundant in deposits all over the world, it’s estimated to make up about 10% of the Earth’s crust. What looks like an ordinary rock can be pulled apart to reveal thin, fluffy fibers. It can then be used as insulation, woven into a yarn or thread to make fireproof or chemical proof clothing, or used in endless industrial purposes. In ancient Rome, as the story goes, they wove napkins out of it, throwing them into the fire after meals to have them come out unscathed and stunningly clean.
If unobtanium was a thing, it’d be asbestos.
Now for the ‘it’s gonna fuck up your life’ part.
The chemical makeup of asbestos varies, but the most common type, chrysotile, is Mg3Si2O5(OH)4. The chemical itself isn’t what makes it such a goddamn nightmare. A chunk of chrysotile won’t hurt you, lest it’s lobbed at your face.
Those fluffy fibers have microscopic sharp edges that don’t break down in the human body. It’s easy to unwittingly breathe a lot of it in when you’re working with asbestos for years. They both kill and damage cells in the lining of the lungs. Short term exposure generally won’t cause measurable damage. Prolonged exposure- like working with the stuff for a decade or three- can induce asbestosis or mesothelioma, a type of cancer that’s almost always fatal.
We’ve known this was a fucker since forever. And I mean Roman empire forever. In both ancient Greece and Rome, they observed a ‘sickness of the lungs’ in people who worked with asbestos. It was also called the ‘disease of slaves,’ clueing us into who worked in the mines.
We don’t generally check texts from the ancient Mediterranean for safety data though.
Material made from asbestos was regularly used through the centuries, but it really took off in the industrial revolution. Asbestos not only could be processed more efficiently because of industrialization, but also used in manufacturing due to it being fire/water/chemical/honey badger proof. In the late 1800s, large scale mining operations started up, eventually taking hold on six continents.
Documented health problems with asbestos started at the end of the 19th century because… duh. In 1906 the first diagnosis of asbestos induced fibrosis was confirmed via autopsy in a 33 year old mine worker whose lungs were riddled with asbestos. Before the end of the decade insurance premiums started rising for mine workers.
Asbestos production tripled that decade.
In the 1930s, British physician Edward Merewether identified asbestosis, and recommended sufficient ventilation and respirators. Though they did manage to implement some of his recommendations in asbestos factories in England, the new regulations didn’t apply to all the other industries that used asbestos.
By the 1940s the links between asbestos and lung diseases were becoming clear. Twenty years later, complaints of widespread illness amongst workers were still falling on deaf ears.
Around the world the use of asbestos started to decline around 1980. It took stacks of litigation until finally, in 1989, the US… didn’t really ban asbestos. It’s been phased out of most products and cannot be used in any new ones. Attempts to ban it entirely have failed. Because ‘Murika or something. The last asbestos mine in the US was closed in 2002.
I hear you judging us from across the internet, but Canada mined it until 2011 and only banned it entirely in 2018. They were until recently the second largest exporter of asbestos. Despite not using it to insulate Canadian homes for decades, they were selling it to India. Because I guess it’s non-carcinogenic after you get paid for it and ship it out of sight.
And in Russia, they still proudly mine asbestos. Асбе́ст, pronounced Asbest, is named for their finest exported carcinogen. It’s in this mining town where they produce pallets of fluffy fibers stamped with our soon to be ex-president’s face on it.
This has been your moment of science, reminding you that all terrible ideas come to an end eventually.
In some things, asbestos is a valid thing, rather than having a fucking furnace release its rath upon you.
Other side, brakes, really, legendary bad idea, insolulable product, your most sensitive tissues, really bad idea.
Clean coal is trivial compared.
Clean coal would be via cleansinging contimination via said coal.
Asbestos, not so much.
It’d be under a fume hood from hell, think BSL5.
Wonderful as a specified reactant or participant, overall, avoid the shit.Love Canal, NY.
It was also called the ‘disease of slaves,’ clueing us into who worked in the mines.
We don’t generally check texts from the ancient Mediterranean for safety data though.
Ahh, yes, the hubris of modernity. What could historians from millennia past possibly tell us today? Perhaps that’s why we don’t make our students read the classics; it’s like we WANT them to be stupid.
Yvette:
You are sharp as a tack, vulgar, funny, and very informative all at the same time. Would it be too much to ask you to make some meager attempt to minimize the political jabs in your articles?
I stand on the other side of the fence and was once very vocal about it, but I found i to be corrosive and now generally keep my personal opinions close the vest.
Instead of bad-mouthing every move made by the politicians who do not share my values, I choose to pretty much tune ALL elected officials out as much as I can. My focus now is on gratitude and what I have in common with family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. You know, unity.
Hopefully you will choose not to respond with, “Go fuck yourself, Fascist!”, and I am willing to take that risk by commenting here. Forgive me for using a pseudonym below, but I do have a family to support and can not risk the backlash of attacks on my character, threats on my job and of bodily harm, and destruction of my personal property. I already lived that once. Pass.
The time to cry ‘unity’ was before the armed insurrection, slugger.
Thanks for reading and responding to my commen. I am disappointed that you assumed that I somehow supported the assault on Washington D.C. on January 5, 2021. My epiphany and focus on common good began long before the Presidential campaign in 2015, not this week as some sanctimonious butt-hurt response to the outcome of the 2020 election.
For what it is worth, I have nothing but contempt for ALL of the people who stormed the Capitol. Violence, assault, and destruction of property are wrong, be it in D.C., Baltimore (my home town), Portland, or Seattle. Wrong is wrong, and there are no innocent parties involved in riots.
Look guy.
With all due respect, just get the fuck out of here.
You’re not going to get what you want, and I’m not going to be nice about it.
When I was a primary school student in Canada during the 1950s, a popular art medium was called, I believe, ‘Asbestos Paste.” I’d guess it was a mixture of asbestos fibres and some sort of glue. It was mixed with water, and given to us students for sculpture. It didn’t hold together very well, releasing small lumps and powder. We, being normal, disgusting children ate it, stuck it in various orfices … Wonder about follow-up studies.
One thing that I don’t understand about asbestos usage. By WW2, even the government understood that asbestos was a problem and they mostly used it just for the war effort – that part you recognize. However, after the war, using asbestos in household items became wildly popular in everything from paint to insulation to tiling for the next thirty years. I don’t understand why the government chose to ignore what it had been so restrictive with in the shipyards during WW2. Something seems like there’s a story in the late 1940s waiting to be told.