Asbestos History

Whilst we might think of asbestos as a product of the industrial age, due to its frequent use as a building and insulation material, asbestos is in fact a naturally occurring silicate material. As such, it has been used and exploited since ancient times and even as far back as the Greeks the dangers of working with it were already known to some observers. The word itself comes from a Greek word meaning non-extinguishable. They also named it the 'miracle mineral' because of the way in which it could be worked yet had seemingly amazing fire retardant properties.

In ancient and early Christian times asbestos was commonly worked by being woven into cloth which could then be used for all manner of uses. Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, is said to have had a tablecloth made of asbestos. Asbestos was known to many cultures and cilvilizations and it is probable that a number of early explorers were shown and stunned by its exceptional properties. Marco Polo's account, on his journey to China, of seeing miracle clothing that could be cleaned by simply placing them in fire was almost certainly such an instance.

The Greeks and Romans had already noted the dangers of working with the mineral. Strabo (a Greek geographer) and Pliny the Elder (the Roman naturalist) both observed how asbestos could damage the lungs of the slaves whose task it was to weave it into useful cloth.

In the time of the late industrial revolution, the rapid manufacturing, technological and scientific advances of the nineteenth century were well underway and asbestos was ready to explode onto centre stage in all aspects of building and industry. From the 1860s asbestos was increasingly used an an insulating material in both Canada and the US. It was 1879 when the first major commercial asbestos mine opened in Quebec's Appalachian foothills.

Over the next three-quarters of a century asbestos came to be employed in the manufacture of a huge range of products. These included roofing sheets, pipes, fireplace cement, gaskets resistant to heat, acid and fire, flame retardant coatings, treated concrete, pipe and ceiling insulation, wall sheeting and drywall, flooring tiles and joint compound. Other uses included automotive brake pads, gas stove heat spreaders and, horrifying as it sounds, in a certain cigarette brand's filter tips.

One of the most common and, to this day, one of the most significant uses of asbestos was in the shipbuilding industry where literally thousands of tons of the material were used for a variety of purposes. During WWII over 4 million people were employed in United States shipyards where asbestos could be found as insulation pipe wrap, boiler lining, heat resistant engine and turbine parts and covers, to name just a few.examples.

Many buildings erected during the first two thirds of the twentieth century used asbestos in some part of their construction. Corrugated roofing sheets are still very common and can be seen on garage roofs throughout the UK and other countries. Whole outbuildings could be built simply by using asbestos sheets attached to a wooden or steel frame. In the post-war climate it was even used in the manufacture of prefabricated housing which was being erected to address the problems of people displaced from bombed out areas. A number of these buildings, orginally intended as a stop gap measure, survived for much longer and still stand to this day.

The ubiquitous presence and myriad of uses of this naturally occurring material has meant that the legacy issues are enormous with new cases of asbestos related illnesses being identified each year. There is still a huge amount of asbestos contained within many domestic and workplace environments, presenting owners, residents and workers with a number of issues relating to its safe management and professional removal.

'Asbestos Reference' is the site for info relating to identifying asbestos and the careful management, removal and disposal of sheeting, insulation and other products made from the material. All information provided at this site is offered on a non-professional basis and you should take all sensible precautions and consult qualified UK professional organisations and contractors when dealing with asbestos.