DOCSLIB.ORG

A Physical Paradox

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Physical Paradox 1 A Physical Paradox Asbestos...the world’s most wonderful mineral. A. L. Summers, Asbestos and the Asbestos Industry (1919). ASBESTOS WORKER’S DEATH: MINERAL PARTICLES IN LUNGS THE FIRST CAUSE Headline in the Rochdale Times, 2 Apr. 1924. the asbestos giant On a blustery and showery morning in August 1924, a funeral procession gathered in Rochdale, a town some 8 miles north of Manchester. After a service at a house in one of the better-class districts in the town, the mourners began the slow journey towards the town cemetery. It was a funeral cortège in the grand Victorian manner. Several hundred people had gathered in the town centre to pay their respects, and as the hearse headed past the Town Hall and out towards the cemetery it was followed by nearly sixty carriages and motor cars. At the graveside, fulsome tribute was paid to one of Rochdale’s most famous sons. The dead man was Sir Samuel Turner, an 84-year-old industrialist, who had died from a stroke the previous week at a hotel in Harrogate. The Turners were one of the town’s leading families: worthy Victorian ‘men of mark’, who could be said to have risen from humble origins by dint of their own ‘enterprise’ and practical skill. An honorary freeman and former mayor of Rochdale, Samuel Turner had been knighted in 1914, when he already had the wealth and trappings of a latter-day multi- millionaire. As a Methodist and Liberal, Turner had naturally balanced his wealth with paternalism and a commitment to the local community. His residence, Chaseley, from where his funeral cortège set out, was opposite the park he had donated to the town. To one obituarist, Turner’s career was an uplifting tale of ‘commercial romance’.1 Its origins lay, appropriately, in that seedbed of the Industrial Revolution—the Lancashire textile industry—in a town famous for its production of flannel. Among Rochdale’s fertile textile and engineering 1 Rochdale Observer, 13, 23 Aug. 1924. 2 Physical Paradox base was the calico-weaving business of Samuel Turner & Company. It had been founded by Sir Samuel Turner’s father—confusingly also named Samuel Turner (1807–80)—who in 1856 had occupied the Clod Mill in Spotland, a district only a mile or so west of the town centre. Samuel Turner I had three sons—John, Robert, and Samuel—who in 1871 launched Turner Brothers, a separate operation within Clod Mill. The new venture was established to manufacture cotton seals (packings) for keeping the pistons of engines steam-tight. The inspiration for this busi- ness was the second Samuel Turner (1840–1924), the owner’s son and the man later buried with such ceremony in Rochdale Cemetery. In 1879, hindered by the deficiencies of cotton as a packing material, Turner had seized on the availability of what was then a relatively little-known indus- trial raw material—asbestos. A naturally occurring mineral, asbestos had been known since ancient times, though originally more as an object of wonder and curiosity than as a useful item of commerce. A folklore had grown up around the ma- terial. The Greeks were believed to have used asbestos wicks in lamps for their temples; while another story has Charlemagne astonishing guests by cleaning an asbestos tablecloth by fire. Royal bodies were said to have been wrapped in asbestos cloth to prevent their ashes mingling with those from the funeral pyre: hence, asbestos became known as the funeral dress of kings. Certainly the indestructible and fireproof qualities of asbestos were well appreciated before the modern commercial era began in the late nineteenth century.2 A key event occurred in the 1870s in Canada, where a forest fire in the Thetford area near Quebec revealed large deposits of the material. By the time Samuel Turner II saw his first asbestos, geologists had already described its main characteristics and had divided the fibrous mineral into two geological classifications—serpentine and amphibole (Table 1.1 and Figure 1.1). Chrysotile (or white asbestos) was the material that Turner would have seen first. This type of asbestos, which was to be mined in substantial quantities in Canada, was to dominate the industry and eventually accounted for some 95 per cent of asbestos mined world- wide. Crocidolite (blue asbestos) was also known in the nineteenth century, but it never became as significant commercially: it did, however, have exceptional acid resistance. The other important form, known as amosite (brown asbestos)—a name derived from the Asbestos Mines of South Africa—was to become available after 1917 and was prized for its fire-resistance. Like the ancients, nineteenth-century industrialists were fascinated by a mineral that, when crushed, released a multitude of soft filaments. 2 The ancient history is documented in I. J. Selikoff and D. H. K. Lee, Asbestos and Disease (1978), 3–8. Physical Paradox 3 Table 1.1. Asbestos types and their characteristics Chrysotile Crocidolite Amosite Main sources Canada, South South Africa South Africa Africa, Russia Fibre colour White Blue Grey-yellow Characteristics Silky, soft, excellent Harsh, reasonably Coarse, usually flexibility and flexible and tough brittle tough Attributes Very good spinning Resistant to heat Heat resistant potential, excellent and to very strong resistance to heat acids and all liquids except strong acids. Main uses Asbestos textiles; Asbestos textiles; Preformed asbestos cement spray slab-type thermal insulation; spray Fig. 1.1. Asbestos groups Asbestos was described as one of the most ‘marvellous productions’ of inorganic nature—‘a physical paradox’—that combined the properties of rock and silk and could be spun into strands that weighed less than an ounce to a hundred yards.3 It now had more than curiosity value. As Europe and America industrialized, asbestos became inextricably linked 3 R. H. Jones, Asbestos and Asbestic (1897), 1–2. 4 Physical Paradox with the new steam age. Steam was synonymous with heat; and where there was heat, fireproofing and insulation materials were essential. Asbestos was the logical choice, because it resisted decay and destruction by superheated steam or grease. Contemporaries noted admiringly that it was impervious to the pounding meted out by marine, hydraulic, or other engines: ‘So little influence of a chemical nature does [asbestos] exert over any metal, with which it is brought into contact, that, if a joint be broken, the surfaces will be found entirely free from corrosion. Moreover, its incombustible nature and slow conduction of heat render it a complete protection from flames.’4 Turner had realized that asbestos would be ideal in the packings for steam engines and also for insulation. He saw at once ‘the commercial value of the article, providing it could be spun and manufactured’.5 Turner’s breakthrough was to spin and weave asbestos by power-driven machinery. The tough and slippery asbestos fibres made this difficult, but the problem was solved by adding a small amount of cotton or other organic fibre to the mineral.6 Turner recalled: ‘No sooner was it discov- ered that I could produce packing indestructible by heat than the demand became out of all proportions to supply.’ Later he would utilize other innovations from America and Austria. These included adding asbestos fibre to magnesia for use in pre-formed insulation products; and mixing asbestos with cement to produce sheets for roofing and walls.7 All these products made use of asbestos’s indestructibility, high tensile strength, and fireproofing and insulating properties. Turner Brothers (which in 1880 employed only about five hands) was not the first British company to market asbestos, but it led the way in its large-scale production.8 Alongside the original and successful cotton busi- ness, Turner Brothers began growing steadily. By 1900, about fifty were employed in the asbestos side of the business, which occupied the south- ern end of the Spotland site. A decade later, employment was over 300. By 1914, asbestos production at the factory embraced a wide variety of asbestos cloths, including rubber-proofed varieties, besides compressed asbestos fibre (CAF) jointing, and brake linings. In 1913, the company had also opened an asbestos cement plant on the fast-growing industrial estate in Trafford Park, Manchester, which would later tap the huge twentieth- century market for asbestos-cement building materials. 4 Jones, Asbestos, 2–3. 5 Rochdale Observer, 13 Aug. 1924, quoting Family Circle, 27 Aug. 1895. 6 On the technical problems, see W. J. Ellison, ‘Early Years in the Life of Turner Brothers Asbestos Company Ltd’, Firefly (Winter Supp., 1966), 13–20. 7 Magnesia insulation contained up to 15 per cent asbestos; for asbestos cement, the figure was between 15 and 30 per cent asbestos (usually chrysotile). 8 W. J. Ellison, Some Notes on the Earlier History and Development to 1939 of Turner Brothers Asbestos Company Ltd (1939), 8. Physical Paradox 5 During the First World War, the firm—renamed Turner Brothers Asbestos (TBA)—continued to expand and not only in Rochdale. The company took its first steps towards multinational status, with the regis- tration in 1907 of a Canadian selling agency (later known as Atlas Asbestos). All the fibre used in Britain had to be imported: that, and the fact that the quality from different suppliers was often variable, led Turner to integrate backwards into asbestos mining.9 In 1917, TBA directors were appointed to the board of the Rhodesia & General Asbestos Corporation, as the company began buying up mines in the Mashaba district in southern Rhodesia. By the early twentieth century, sales of asbestos were booming. TBA had single-handedly repeated the trick of the Lancashire textile industry by taking a common, relatively cheap imported raw material, and then transforming it with local expertise into a profitable product.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • UK Asbestos: the Definitive Guide (2004)
    UK ASBESTOS - THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE Working Party: Brian Gravelsons, Wendy Hawes, Sylwia Jakubowski, Anthony Kent, Julian Lowe (Chairman), Andy Macnair, Darren Michaels, Anita Morton, David Sanders, Philip Towell, Andy Whiting, James Widdows, Anthony Williams Keywords: “asbestos”, “asbestosis”, “mesothelioma” Summary: The estimated future cost to the UK insurance industry of asbestos-related claims is £4- £10b. Well over half of this relates to mesothelioma claims, numbers of which are predicted to continue to rise for the next ten years. By contrast, claims for other asbestos-related diseases, such as asbestosis, are expected to fall in the coming years, as the number of claims mirrors the declining use of asbestos since the 1970s. Most estimates of the future number of mesothelioma claims are based on the latest (2003) HSE projections. We have reproduced the HSE projections in a spreadsheet model to help practitioners understand the HSE model. This highlights the sensitivity of the projections to a number of key parameters. In particular, the future number of mesothelioma deaths is very dependent on how the disease continues to develop at older (80+) ages, with over half of all claims being in respect of those aged over 80 by the year 2020. The future number of mesothelioma deaths could easily be considerably higher or lower than the current projections, depending on the experience of this age group. We suspect that the variability of the HSE projections is greater than most practitioners who use the model would currently assume to be the case. In producing our estimates, we have used data collected via an anonymous survey from all major UK insurers, representing the majority of the UK market.
    [Show full text]
  • Selikoff, Asbestos and “La Trahison Des Clercs” Selikoff, L’Amianto E “La Trahison Des Clercs”
    06-greenberg 14-10-2008 15:35 Pagina 149 Eur. J. Oncol., vol. 13, n. 3, pp. 149-159, 2008 Editorial/Editoriale Selikoff, asbestos and “la trahison des clercs” Selikoff, l’amianto e “la trahison des clercs” Morris Greenberg Extramural, London, United Kingdom Summary Riassunto Irving J. Selikoff lived by Virchow’s axiom that Irving J. Selikoff visse secondo l’assioma di Vir- “Physicians are the natural attorneys of the chow che “i Medici sono i naturali avvocati dei po- poor”. Not given to intemperate language, his veri”. Non incline ad un linguaggio intemperante, harshest judgement of physicians he deemed il suo giudizio più severo sui medici che riteneva guilty of wilful intellectual dishonesty, whether colpevoli di premeditata disonestà intellettuale, for financial gain or otherwise, was to condemn per guadagni economici od altro, fu di condannar- them for “la trahison des clercs”. In the context of li per “la trahison des clercs” (il tradimento degli the awful history of asbestos, the term “clercs” intellettuali). Nel contesto della terribile storia del- came to embrace lay, scientific, and medical l’amianto, il termine “clerc” finì per comprendere members of the intelligentsia. For many years, intellettuali sia scienziati e medici, sia laici. Per industry’s creatures employed the facile ploy of molti anni le creature dell’industria impiegavano accusing critics of merely exercising hindsight, il facile stratagemma di accusare i critici di avva- until towards the end of the 20th Century, when lersi semplicemente del senno di poi, fin quando, vast confidential archives were opened by verso la fine del 20° secolo, enormi archivi riser- discovery in the American Courts, and finally put vati furono scoperti nei tribunali americani e, fi- an end to this spurious defence.
    [Show full text]
  • Asbestos: from ‘Magic’ to Malevolent Mineral David Gee and Morris Greenberg
    52 Late lessons from early warnings: the precautionary principle 1896–2000 5. Asbestos: from ‘magic’ to malevolent mineral David Gee and Morris Greenberg ‘Looking back in the light of present knowledge, it is where the surgeon worked for four years as a impossible not to feel that opportunities for student and trainee, during the period discovery and prevention of asbestos disease were 1966–73 (British Medical Journal, 2000). The badly missed.’ Thomas Legge, ex Chief main cause of mesothelioma is asbestos. It is Medical Inspector of Factories, in Industrial now estimated that some 250 000 cases of maladies, 1934. mesothelioma, which is normally fatal within one year, will occur in the European Union 5.1. Introduction (EU) over the next 35 years (Peto, 1999). As asbestos is also a cause of lung cancer, the On 20 May 2000, the family of a senior UK total disease burden could be around hospital surgeon was awarded GBP 1.15 250 000–400 000 deaths, including cases of million in compensation for his death, at 47, the lung disease, asbestosis, which was the from the asbestos cancer, mesothelioma. The first disease to be associated with asbestos disease was caused by exposure to ‘blue’ exposure. Figure 5.1. shows the peak of asbestos dust from damaged pipe insulation asbestos imports into the United Kingdom which was present in the communication being followed some 50–60 years later by the tunnels under Middlesex Hospital, London, estimated peak of mesotheliomas. Figure 5.1. UK asbestos imports and predicted mesothelioma deaths Source: Peto, 1999 All men, assuming risk to men born after 200 3500 1953 is 50% of 1943-48 birth cohort Chrysotile 180 Amosite 3000 Crocidolite 160 2500 140 120 2000 100 1500 80 60 1000 Men born before 1953 40 500 20 Annual number of males mesothelioma deaths Annual UK asbestos imports (thousands of tons) 0 0 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020 2040 Year Ninety years before this environmental grew to 2 million tonnes in 1998.
    [Show full text]
  • Late Lessons from Early Warnings: the Precautionary Principle 1896–2000
    1 Environmental issue report No 22 Late lessons from early warnings: the precautionary principle 1896–2000 Editorial team: Poul Harremoës (Chairman) David Gee (EEA editor) Malcolm MacGarvin (Executive editor) Andy Stirling (Editor) Jane Keys (Editor) Brian Wynne (Editor) Sofia Guedes Vaz (EEA editor) Project managers: David Gee and Sofia Guedes Vaz European Environment Agency 2 Late lessons from early warnings: the precautionary principle 1896–2000 Layout: Brandenborg a/s Note The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the official opinions of the European Commission or other European Communities institutions. Neither the European Environment Agency nor any person or company acting on the behalf of the Agency is responsible for the use that may be made of the information contained in this report. All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage retrieval system without the permission in writing from the copyright holder. For rights of translation or reproduction please contact EEA project manager Ove Caspersen (address information below). A great deal of additional information on the European Union is available on the Internet. It can be accessed through the Europa server (http://europa.eu.int). Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2001 ISBN 92-9167-323-4 © EEA, Copenhagen, 2001 European Environment Agency Kongens Nytorv 6 DK-1050 Copenhagen K Denmark Tel: (45) 33 36 71 00 Fax: (45) 33 36 71 99 E-mail: [email protected] Internet: http://www.eea.eu.int Preface 3 Preface To know and not to know.
    [Show full text]
  • The Home Office and the Asbestos Industry Regulations, 1931
    Medical History, 1998, 42: 421-438 Too little, too late? The Home Office and the Asbestos Industry Regulations, 1931 PETER BARTRIP* Asbestos is the generic term for a group of fibrous minerals. Virtually indestructible and of high tensile strength, it is both fire and acid resistant, and yet can be spun into yarn and woven into cloth. Although there is evidence of the use of asbestos in the ancient world, it acquired commercial importance only in the late nineteenth century. Thereafter it was employed for numerous purposes, including in fire proofing, insulation and the automobile industry. But, while asbestos was in many ways a boon to humanity, it possesses one major drawback: exposure to its dust can cause fatal diseases, including fibrosis of the lungs (asbestosis) and cancer. As awareness of these dangers emerged, its use came to be first regulated and, subsequently, curtailed, so that today an asbestos industry hardly exists. While the asbestos industry might be virtually extinct, no branch of the history of occupational health has received more attention than asbestos-related disease. Much of this attention has focused on the USA, but several studies have discussed British developments, particularly during the first third of the twentieth century.1 When scholars independently investigate almost any subject, the usual outcome is debate and controversy. However, in relation to asbestos and health there is a high degree of consensus, not only that asbestos was "a bad thing" but that a chapter of errors and omissions occurred in the discovery and eradication of that bad thing. As far as early-twentieth-century Britain is concerned there is broad agreement on a number of points.
    [Show full text]
  • Is Occupational Asbestos Exposure an Under-Recognised Cause of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis?
    Is occupational asbestos exposure an under-recognised cause of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis? Carl Jonathan Reynolds A thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervised by: Professor Paul Cullinan Dr Chris Barber Dr Sara De Matteis Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine National Heart and Lung Institute Imperial College London, UK September 2020 Except where otherwise noted, content in this thesis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Copyright 2020, Carl Reynolds. 1 I, Carl Jonathan Reynolds confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 2 Abstract The question of whether occupational asbestos exposure is an under- recognized cause of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis arises because it is clinically and epidemiologically plausible, and consistent with fibre studies, case-control, and toxicological data. This thesis examines the question by means of a literature review and a novel hospital based case-control study, the idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis job exposures study (IPFJES). In a literature review and meta-analysis of studies reporting on occupational exposures in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) I found significant associ- ations with metal, wood, and stone dust, but not asbestos. However, there was considerable heterogeneity and confidence in the meta-analysis result is tempered by a high risk of bias arising from selection, lack of blinding, exposure misclassification, incomplete exposure data, and selective report- ing of exposures.
    [Show full text]
  • British Asbestos Newsletter
    ISSN 1470-8108 Issue 109 Spring-Summer 2019 BRITISH ASBESTOS NEWSLETTER Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.britishasbestosnewsletter.org Reflecting on the 20th Anniversary of Britain’s Asbestos Ban by Laurie Kazan-Allen Since chrysotile asbestos – the most common type of asbestos ever used – was banned in the UK (1999),1 more than 85,000 Britons have died from the asbestos related-diseases of mesothelioma, asbestosis, asbestos-related lung cancer and cancers of the stomach and larynx.2 Britain has the highest asbestos-related disease and mesothelioma mortality rates in the world.3 According to Cancer Research UK “[British] mesothelioma mortality rates have increased by 887% since the early 1970s.”4 Quantifying the Hazard The most recent Health and Safety Executive (HSE) mesothelioma mortality data were released in early July 2018 and provided confirmation that the country’s widespread and unregulated use of asbestos throughout the 20th century still constituted a health hazard not only to workers but also to members of the public.5 In 2016, there were 2,595 deaths from mesothelioma, a 10% increase since 2010 (2,360) despite predictions that the national epidemic would peak at 2,040 per year by 2016. The reality of the situation is much graver than had been acknowledged by the authorities; the HSE figures for 2016 were 27% worse than forecast.6 While 85,000 deaths in 20 years are bad enough, this figure could be a dramatic underestimate of the true impact asbestos exposures have had in Britain. There are two main obstacles to gaining an accurate picture: the difficulty in identifying most asbestos-related diseases and the impossibility of distinguishing asbestos-related lung cancer from other types of lung cancer.
    [Show full text]
  • Histories of Technology, the Environment and Modern Britain Ii Iii
    i Histories of Technology, the Environment and Modern Britain ii iii Histories of Technology, the Environment and Modern Britain Edited by Jon Agar and Jacob Ward iv First published in 2018 by UCL Press University College London Gower Street London WC1E 6BT Available to download free: www.ucl.ac.uk/ ucl- press Text © Contributors, 2018 Images © Contributors and copyright holders named in the captions, 2018 The authors have asserted their rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the authors of this work. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from The British Library. This book is published under a Creative Commons 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0).This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work; to adapt the work and to make commercial use of the work providing attribution is made to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information: Agar, J. and Ward, J. (eds.). 2018. Histories of Technology, the Environment and Modern Britain. London: UCL Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781911576570 Further details about Creative Commons licenses are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ ISBN: 978- 1- 911576- 59- 4 (Hbk.) ISBN: 978- 1- 911576- 58- 7 (Pbk.) ISBN: 978- 1- 911576- 57- 0 (PDF) ISBN: 978- 1- 911576- 60- 0 (epub) ISBN: 978- 1- 911576- 61- 7 (mobi) ISBN: 978- 1- 911576- 62- 4 (html) DOI: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781911576570 v Acknowledgements The editors would like to express their sincere thanks to all who helped see this collection to publication.
    [Show full text]
  • An Introduction to Public Health and Epidemiology an Introduction to Public Health and Epidemiology SECOND EDITION
    SECOND EDITION An Introduction to Public Health and Epidemiology An Introduction to Public Health and Epidemiology SECOND EDITION “The contents are not specifically nursing orientated but very neatly balanced to be of relevance to all working in the public An Introduction to health arena… the book is well written, the language is clear, and the concepts clearly and simply explained and easily understood” Journal of Biosocial Science Public Health • What are epidemiology and public health? • What is the nature of public health evidence and knowledge? and Epidemiology • What strategies can be used to protect and improve health? The second edition of this bestselling book provides a multi-professional introduction to the key concepts in public health and epidemiology. It presents a broad, interactive account of contemporary public health, placing an emphasis on developing public health skills and stimulating the reader to think through the issues for themselves. The new edition features additional material on: • Historical perspectives • Public health skills for practice • Evaluation of public health interventions SECOND EDITION • The nature of evidence and public health knowledge • Translating policy and evidence into practice An Introduction to Public Health and Epidemiology is key reading for students of public health and healthcare professionals, including: nurses, doctors, community development workers and public health workers. Carr Susan Carr is Reader in the Health Improvement Research Programme, Community Health & Education Studies Research Centre, Northumbria University, UK where she • researches and teaches public health and primary care issues. Unwin Nigel Unwin is Professor of Epidemiology in Advancing Research in Chronic Disease Epidemiology (archEpi) and lead of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Diabetes in • the Institute of Health and Society at Newcastle University, UK.
    [Show full text]
  • History of Asbestos Related Disease P W J Bartrip
    72 Postgrad Med J: first published as 10.1136/pmj.2003.012526 on 17 February 2004. Downloaded from REVIEW History of asbestos related disease P W J Bartrip ............................................................................................................................... Postgrad Med J 2004;80:72–76. doi: 10.1136/pmj.2003.012526 The first medical article on the hazards of asbestos dust companies, such as Johns–Manville, the American giant that dominated the industry for appeared in the British Medical Journal in 1924. Following many years, ran to scores of pages. So asbestos inquiries by Edward Merewether and Charles Price, the had many ‘‘upsides’’. Unfortunately, it also has a British government introduced regulations to control very significant ‘‘downside’’ in that exposure to its dust can cause three fatal diseases: asbestosis, dangerous dust emissions in UK asbestos factories. Until lung cancer, and mesothelioma of the pleura and the 1960s these appeared to have addressed the problem peritoneum. effectively. Only then, with the discoveries that It has long been known that asbestos dust constitutes a danger to health; however, some mesothelioma was an asbestos related disease and that issues, including the relative hazards of different workers other than those employed in the dustiest parts of types of asbestos and whether there is a safe level asbestos factories were at risk, were the nature and scale of of exposure to any of them, remain in scientific dispute.12 Since the 1960s crocidolite has been the hazard reassessed. In Britain, America, and elsewhere regarded as a particular hazard, chiefly because new and increasingly strict regulations were enacted. of its strong association with mesothelioma. ........................................................................... Amosite is widely regarded as scarcely less dangerous.
    [Show full text]
  • The Home Office and the Asbestos Industry Regulations, 1931
    Medical History, 1998, 42: 421-438 Too little, too late? The Home Office and the Asbestos Industry Regulations, 1931 PETER BARTRIP* Asbestos is the generic term for a group of fibrous minerals. Virtually indestructible and of high tensile strength, it is both fire and acid resistant, and yet can be spun into yarn and woven into cloth. Although there is evidence of the use of asbestos in the ancient world, it acquired commercial importance only in the late nineteenth century. Thereafter it was employed for numerous purposes, including in fire proofing, insulation and the automobile industry. But, while asbestos was in many ways a boon to humanity, it possesses one major drawback: exposure to its dust can cause fatal diseases, including fibrosis of the lungs (asbestosis) and cancer. As awareness of these dangers emerged, its use came to be first regulated and, subsequently, curtailed, so that today an asbestos industry hardly exists. While the asbestos industry might be virtually extinct, no branch of the history of occupational health has received more attention than asbestos-related disease. Much of this attention has focused on the USA, but several studies have discussed British developments, particularly during the first third of the twentieth century.1 When scholars independently investigate almost any subject, the usual outcome is debate and controversy. However, in relation to asbestos and health there is a high degree of consensus, not only that asbestos was "a bad thing" but that a chapter of errors and omissions occurred in the discovery and eradication of that bad thing. As far as early-twentieth-century Britain is concerned there is broad agreement on a number of points.
    [Show full text]
  • Citation: Van Horssen, JJ (2018) Locality and Contamination Along the Transnational Asbestos Commodity Chain
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Leeds Beckett Repository Citation: Van Horssen, JJ (2018) Locality and Contamination Along the Transnational Asbestos Commodity Chain. In: Histories of Technology, the Environment, and Modern Britain. University College London Press, London, pp. 62-75. ISBN 9781911576570 Link to Leeds Beckett Repository record: http://eprints.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/id/eprint/7219/ Document Version: Book Section Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 The aim of the Leeds Beckett Repository is to provide open access to our research, as required by funder policies and permitted by publishers and copyright law. The Leeds Beckett repository holds a wide range of publications, each of which has been checked for copyright and the relevant embargo period has been applied by the Research Services team. We operate on a standard take-down policy. If you are the author or publisher of an output and you would like it removed from the repository, please contact us and we will investigate on a case-by-case basis. Each thesis in the repository has been cleared where necessary by the author for third party copyright. If you would like a thesis to be removed from the repository or believe there is an issue with copyright, please contact us on [email protected] and we will investigate on a case-by-case basis. i Histories of Technology, the Environment and Modern Britain iii Histories of Technology, the Environment and Modern Britain Edited by Jon Agar and Jacob Ward iv First published in 2018 by UCL Press University College London Gower Street London WC1E 6BT Available to download free: www.ucl.ac.uk/ ucl- press Text © Contributors, 2018 Images © Contributors and copyright holders named in the captions, 2018 The authors have asserted their rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the authors of this work.
    [Show full text]