100 Years Later, Asbestos Is Still a Modern-Day Threat
A century after doctors first warned that asbestos was harming employees, the malignant mineral poses ongoing risks.
- By Justinian C. Lane
- Jun 24, 2024
From personal protective equipment to improved training, workplace safety has made significant advancements. But asbestos is one of the most durable substances known to humans, able to withstand temperatures far in excess of 1000 degrees Fahrenheit, sustain enormous pressure, and resist rusting and chemical breakdown.
A lot of asbestos is still out there, and some of it is still in the bodies of workers who breathed and swallowed it in the twentieth century.
The First Alarm Bells
While some spurious claims are made online that ancient Romans like Pliny the Elder knew about the dangers of asbestos, in fact the health risks of asbestos were first brought to light in 1924, when an article in the British Medical Journal warned about the dangers in its dust.
Before that, doctors working near asbestos worksites had suspected the dust was causing chronic bronchitis and fibrosis (scarring) in their patients. Professor J.M. Beattie's research validated these suspicions by demonstrating that asbestos particles caused fibrosis in guinea pigs.
This early recognition was an important milestone, but concerns raised by medical professionals were often met with strong resistance from the asbestos industry at the time. These companies sought to avoid employee lawsuits by hiring scientists to downplay the dangers of asbestos, including outright burying their own studies that showed asbestos caused cancer.
Asbestos Regulation and Worker Protection
Significant steps have been taken to protect workers and the public. One milestone was the establishment of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in 1971, with asbestos being one of the first substances that OSHA regulated.
In 1989, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) moved to enforce strict mandates against many uses of asbestos and ban their manufacturing, importing or sale.
Most recently, the EPA announced a ban on some of the lingering permitted uses of asbestos, specifically its most commonly used type, chrysotile.