History

History of Asbestos

The history of asbestos and it discovery as a viable product dates back to ancient times starting first with the Greeks about 3000 BC. The word is thought to mean “inextinguishable” or “indestructible”. Chrysotile, one of the most common forms of asbestos is derived from other Greek words, chrysos, meaning gold and tilos meaning fiber, gold fiber. Evvoia, a Greek island is thought to be the first quarry where this precious substance was first mined. The Greeks were the first to discovered asbestos as a flame retardant product to be used in cooking and adapted for many other uses. Additionally, asbestos can be traced back to Roman references as well as its discovered use in pottery in Scandinavia around 2500 BC. Throughout ancient history, because of its ability to withstand heat, asbestos was used in many different products including clothing, tablecloths, burial shrouds, wicks in candles and lamps, paper, building materials, etc. Medieval applications included insulation in armor as well as containing flaming pitch and tar bags catapulted during battles. So widespread was the use of asbestos in products that its use covered the entire ancient world, from China and India to Western Europe and North Africa.

It was not until the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century that asbestos, as a mined product, found its most prolific uses in manufacturing, because of its heat and strengthening properties and bonding agents. This broaden use and mining of asbestos expanded its deadly exposure to workers and miners of the time.

Asbestos is a flexible, long strand fiber, that occurs naturally in six different minerals including amosite (brown asbestos), chrysotile (white asbestos), crocidolite (blue asbestos) and the varieties tremolite, actinolite and anthophllite. Mining of these products occurred on almost every continent, in China, Germany, Russia, Finland, Italy, England, Scotland, Wales, Australia, Africa and most importantly for North American manufacturing, Canada and the United States.

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Manufacturing & Asbestos

Asbestos products were primarily developed to solve heat and temperature problems. Asbestos properties are resistant to chemicals, water and electric current. Industrial products such as turbines, boilers, generators, ovens and steam engines were fitted with asbestos components and gave rise to a manufacturing process that lent itself to additional asbestos applications in products. Because of the availability and relatively inexpensive cost of asbestos, thousands of popular products were manufactured and contained the substance before government regulation prohibited them from the market.

In 1901 the H.W. Johns Manufacturing Company merged with the Manville Covering Company to form Johns Manville, the largest manufacturer of asbestos containing products in the United Sates. Over the next 60 years and two World Wars, asbestos products were introduced into a whole host of new and innovative products.

Many of these were industrial and maritime products, building materials, automotive parts, consumer items, and household appliances including but not limited to:

  • Automotive Hood liner
  • Disc Brakes
  • Clutches
  • Gasket Material
  • Heat Seals
  • Asbestos Insulating Blankets
  • Asbestos Paper
  • Asphalt
  • Boiler Wall Coat
  • Caulking
  • Cork Filled Mastic
  • Eighty-Five Percent Magnesia
  • Fire Foil Board
  • Flooring Backing
  • HVAC Duct Insulation
  • Insulating Mix
  • Lagging Tape
  • Mineral Wool Blankets
  • Permaboard
  • Quick-Setting Joint Compound
  • Sheets
  • Sponge Block
  • Stone Sheathing
  • Transite
  • Welding Blankets
  • Artificial Snow
  • Asbestos Forms
  • Asbestos Weatherproof Jackets
  • Corrugated Paper
  • Clay
  • Fertilizer
  • Fireproofing Materials
  • Hair Dryers
  • Metal Mesh Blankets
  • Potting Mixtures
  • Sheet Rope
  • Yarn
  • Valve Rings
  • Valve Stem Packing
  • Bonding Cement
  • Cement Pipes
  • Cement Siding
  • Asbestos Lap
  • Asbestos Pipe Covering
  • Attic Insulation
  • Breaching Insulation
  • Ceiling Tiles
  • Construction Mastics
  • Insulation
  • Fire Foil Panel
  • Gunning Mix
  • Industrial A-C Board
  • Insulation Seal
  • Machine Room Ceilings
  • Mineral Wool Block
  • Pipe Covering
  • Raw Asbestos Fiber
  • Sheetrock
  • Sponge Cover
  • Taping Compounds
  • Troweled Coatings
  • Welding Rods
  • Asbestos Aprons
  • Asbestos Gloves
  • Bakelite
  • Crock Pots
  • Electrical Cloth
  • Fibrous Adhesive
  • Fume Hoods
  • Ironing Board Covers
  • Mittens
  • Pumps
  • Stove Mats
  • Wick
  • Vinyl Wallpaper
  • Cement Wallboard
  • Insulating Cement
  • Refractory Cement
  • Acoustical Tile
  • Asbestos Cloth
  • Asbestos Micarta
  • Asbestos Roll Board
  • Base Flashing
  • Brick and Block Mortar
  • Ceramic Tile
  • Dry Mix Joint Compound
  • Expansion Joint
  • Fireguard Asbestos Paper
  • Heat Guards
  • Insulation
  • Joint Compound
  • Machine Room Floors
  • Navy Sealer
  • Pipe Insulation
  • Roofing Felt
  • Sound Shield
  • Sponge Felt
  • Tar Paper
  • Valve Rings
  • Wire
  • Asbestos Canvas
  • Asbestos Packing
  • Blaze Shield
  • Decorative Plaster
  • Electrical Panel Partition
  • Fire Blankets
  • Furnace Tape
  • Iron Rests
  • Nuclear Reactors
  • Railroad Electrical Arc
  • Talc Powder
  • Valves
  • Finishing Cement
  • Masonry Fill
  • Acoustic Finishes
  • Air Cell Pipe Covering
  • Asbestos Corrugated Sheets
  • Asbestos Millboard
  • Asbestos Spray
  • Blown-In Insulation
  • Calcium Silicate Insulation
  • Clapboards
  • Duct Adhesive
  • Fire Resistant Insulation Shield
  • Flex Board
  • Heat Shields
  • Insulation Coating
  • Lagging
  • Machine Room Walls
  • Paint
  • Plaster
  • Roofing Paper
  • Spackle
  • Spray Fireproofing
  • Textured Coatings
  • Vermiculite Compounds
  • Wood Fiber Plaster
  • Asbestos Cord
  • Asbestos Pads
  • Cigarette Filters
  • Duct Tape
  • Elevator Brake Shoes
  • Fire Curtains
  • Generators
  • Laboratory Gloves
  • Phenolic Resin
  • Chutes
  • Thermal Paper Products
  • Fireproofing Cement
  • Mineral Wool Insulating Cement
  • Acoustical Panels
  • Asbestos Block
  • Asbestos Felt
  • Asbestos Mineral Wool
  • Asbestos Tank Jacket
  • Boilers
  • Carded Asbestos Cloth
  • Cork Board
  • Ductwork Connectors
  • Firebrick
  • Flexible Duct Connectors
  • Heating Ducts
  • Insulation Duct
  • Lagging Adhesive
  • Machine Room Ducts
  • Patching Fiber
  • Pumps
  • Roofing Shingles
  • Spackle Plaster
  • Spray-Applied Insulation
  • Textured Paints
  • Vinyl Floor Tiles
  • Adhesives
  • Asbestos Curtains
  • Asbestos Rope
  • Cooling Towers
  • Baby Powder
  • Emulsion Adhesive
  • Fire Doors
  • Glassblower’s Mitts
  • Laboratory Hoods
  • Plastics
  • Rope/Rope Packing
  • Turbines
  • Furnace Cement
  • One-Shot/One-Coat Cement
  • Acoustical Plaster
  • Asbestos Board
  • Asbestos Flat board
  • Asbestos Panels
  • Asbestos Tape
  • Boiler Insulation
  • Castables
  • Cork Covering
  • Electric Wiring Insulation
  • Fire Clad Asbestos Paper
  • Floor Tile
  • High Pressure Packing
  • Insulation Jacketing
  • Lagging Cloth
  • Mastic Adhesives
  • Patching Plaster
  • Putties
  • Sealer
  • Spackling Compounds
  • Stone Corrugated Sheets
  • Thermal Spray
  • Waterproofing
  • Agricultural Filler
  • Asbestos Felt
  • Asbestos Sleeves
  • Corrugated Asbestos Sheets
  • Cables
  • Emulsions
  • Fire Dampers
  • Glassbestos
  • Marine Panels
  • Popcorn Poppers
  • Sheet Packing