Cause and History
The single greatest risk factor
for mesothelioma is previous asbestos
exposure. Glasslike asbestos fibers
can be so thin that it would take
about thirty million of them bundled
together to resemble the thickness
of a human hair. When airborne,
they may be easily inhaled, leading
to serious respiratory conditions.
Asbestos is a fibrous material
with broad practical applications
due to its uncommon strength,
flexibility, and resistance to
fire. These qualities have been
recognized for millennia. An early
use of the substance is in Egyptian
burial cloths for the Pharaohs.
The Greeks used it for candle
wicks, napkins, and clothing.
The Frankish king Charlemagne
had an asbestos tablecloth, and
is said to have used it to convince
barbarian guests that he had supernatural
powers by throwing it in the fire
and pulling it out undamaged.
Similar tricks were employed by
con artists in the Middle Ages,
some of whom used a form of asbestos
that looked like wood to sell
“magic” crucifixes to the gullible,
demonstrating their so-called
relic’s power by exposing it to
flame.
A Greek geographer named Strabo
was the first to make the connection
between asbestos and lung conditions.
This observation was confirmed
by Roman naturalist Pliny the
Elder, who recommended against
buying quarry slaves from asbestos
mines because of their tendency
to die young.
In modern times, the earliest
recorded concerns about the safety
of asbestos occur in the 1898
Annual Report to Parliament by
the Chief Inspector of Factories
in the United Kingdom, who lamented
the “evil effects” of airborne
asbestos particles. The first
diagnosis of death due to asbestos
exposure was made in the U.K.
in 1906. However, for many decades
thereafter, workers were not warned
about the dangerous conditions
under which they worked.
The threat posed by asbestos
was not taken seriously, and extensive
use of the substance continued.
Use of the material exploded in
the first half of the 1900s. Because
the dangers associated with it
were not widely known, it came
to be used in almost every major
industry and in thousands of commercial
products. Workers in the shipbuilding
industry during World War II were
particularly heavily exposed,
because asbestos was used to insulate
boilers and steam pipes. Asbestos
was also used as insulation in
most of the homes constructed
during the middle of the twentieth
century, and it was used in many
cars. Its use was so widespread
that over a hundred million Americans
were exposed to it and at least
two hundred thousand were killed.
It is difficult to overstate
the effect of asbestos on the
American legal system. Many companies
whose products contained asbestos
were driven into bankruptcy by
litigation. For the last thirty
years, asbestos-related lawsuits
have consistently accounted for
a staggering six percent of filings
in American courts each year (though
some believe that many of these
lawsuits are frivolous.)
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