What is Asbestos?

Asbestos is a mineral fibre that has been used commonly in a variety of building construction materials for insulation and as a fire-retardant. Today, asbestos is most commonly found in older buildings, in pipe insulation materials, asbestos roof tiles, corrugated roof sheets, insulation board, cement panels and textured coating materials, fire protection to steel beams and columns, also floor tiles.

Asbestos has been used for more than 2,000 years. It was named by the Ancient Greeks, its name meaning "inextinguishable". The Greeks also noted its harmful biological effects. Even though the Greek geographer Strabo and the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder both observed the "sickness of the lungs" in the slaves that wove asbestos into cloth, they were in such awe of asbestos' seemingly magical properties that they ignored the symptoms.

The Greeks used asbestos for the wicks of the eternal flames of the vestal virgins, as the funeral dress for the cremation of kings, and as napkins. It is rumored that Romans would clean asbestos napkins by throwing them in the fire. The asbestos cloth would come out of the fire whiter than it went in, so the Romans named asbestos 'amiantus', meaning 'unpolluted'.

Use of asbestos declined during the Middle Ages, yet some say that Charlemagne had asbestos tablecloths. Marco Polo was also shown items made from asbestos cloth on his travels.

Asbestos use was brought back in the 1700's, but did not become popular until the Industrial Revolution during the late 1800's. It then began to be used as insulation for steam pipes, turbines, boilers, kilns, ovens, and other high-temperature products. Ancient observations of the health risks of asbestos were either forgotten or ignored.

At the turn of the twentieth century, researchers began to notice a large number of deaths and lung problems in asbestos mining towns. In 1917 and 1918, it was observed by several studies in the United States that asbestos workers were dying unnaturally young.

The first diagnosis of asbestos related disease was made in 1924. A woman had been working with asbestos since she was thirteen. She died when she was thirty-three years old, and an English doctor determined that the cause of death was what he called 'asbestosis'. Because of this, a study was done on asbestos workers in England. Twenty-five per cent of them showed evidence of asbestos-related lung disease. Laws were passed in 1931 to increase ventilation and to make asbestosis an excusable work-related disease.      

One of the main reasons why asbestos was so popular and widely used was its versatility and cheap production importation.  Asbestos has various useful properties including the following:

• Resistance to electricity, heat and fire giving asbestos ideal fire-proofing capabilities and insulating properties.
  
• Fibres can be mixed with cement or woven into fabric or mats.
• Asbestos will not rot or burn and is relatively impervious to any weather effects, some acids and to vermin.
• Asbestos has a desirable high tensile strength and flexibility.

There are three main types of commercially used asbestos

• Crocidolite  (common name blue asbestos)
  
• Amosite (common name brown asbestos)
  
• Chrysotile (common name white asbestos)