For decades, asbestos was a mainstay of American industry and manufacturing. The mineral’s natural strength, resiliency, and heat-resistant properties were used to fortify and reinforce a variety of products, from automotive parts to wall paint and roof shingles. While we know today that asbestos poses an incredible hazard to human health, millions of Americans spent years working with and living around asbestos. 

Since asbestos-related diseases have a long latency period, they can remain dormant—undetected—until old age. However, asbestos’s ability to stay silent belies its dangers. Asbestos exposure has been correlated to a wide range of potentially deadly medical conditions, up to and including cancer. 

Most people who develop asbestos illnesses worked with the mineral. However, people who lived near asbestos mines, mills, and manufacturing plants could be at increased risk for the mineral’s worst health effects.

Understanding Asbestos and its Dangers

Asbestos is a term used to describe six categories of naturally occurring minerals: 

  • Chrysotile asbestos, or white asbestos, which is among the most commonly used forms of the mineral. White asbestos was used in construction materials, such as asphalt shingles and vinyl floor tiles, as well as automotive parts and home furnaces. 
  • Amosite asbestos, or brown asbestos, was used to fabricate cement sheets and pipe insulation. Brown asbestos could also be found in insulating boards and other heat-resistant products. 
  • Crocidolite asbestos, or blue asbestos, which was once applied to steam engines and used to supplement spray-on coatings. 
  • Anthophyllite asbestos, which was used sparingly to create different insulation products and construction materials. 
  • Tremolite asbestos and actinolite asbestos, neither of which are used commercially but are occasionally found as contaminants in deposits of chrysotile, vermiculite, and talc. 

Every form of asbestos is comprised of highly flexible fibers that are resistant to heat, electricity, and corrosion. When asbestos is used for industrial purposes, it is usually broken down and used to fortify or reinforce other materials, such as paper, tape, or cement. 

While asbestos is not inherently dangerous, it can cause serious—even life-threatening—complications if and when it is not handled with caution.  

The Medical Dangers of Asbestos

We know today that asbestos can cause diseases that kill. 

However, people have sought out asbestos for thousands of years. The ancient Greeks mined asbestos on the Island of Evvoia, east of the Athenian coast. In the Medieval Era, European nobility ordered special garments woven from asbestos fibers, delighting guests with fireproof tablecloths and overcoats.  

Asbestos production skyrocketed in the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution, as American industry tried meeting the needs of a newly urbanizing country. Asbestos was used to create the inexpensive—but incredibly durable—materials needed to produce economical, stable, and supposedly safe homes. 

Unfortunately, asbestos’s strength is what makes it so dangerous. When asbestos minerals are broken down for industrial use, they can degrade and crumble. The resulting fibers—microscopic, odorless, and invisible to the naked eye—are small enough to be inhaled. 

Once asbestos enters the lungs, it can infiltrate the rest of the respiratory system, potentially spreading to other parts of the body. Over time, asbestos fibers—strong, resilient, and almost impossible for the immune system to eradicate—can cause scarring, inflammation, and even cancer. 

Asbestos exposure has been tied to injuries, disorders, and diseases including but not limited to: 

  • Pleural Plaques: Pleural plaques occur as a thickening of tissue around the lungs. While this condition is not life-threatening, it can accelerate or prompt more serious respiratory diseases and problems. 
  • Asbestosis: Asbestosis is a chronic lung condition caused by the inhalation of asbestos fibers. It is characterized by symptoms such as shortness of breath, fatigue, and weight loss. Asbestosis gets worse over time and cannot be cured. 
  • Mesothelioma: Mesothelioma is an asbestos-related cancer that causes severe respiratory problems.
  • Other Cancers: Research has shown that asbestos exposure can lead to cancer of the lungs, ovaries, and esophagus.

There are Different Modes of Asbestos Exposure

Asbestos-related diseases most often affect former asbestos workers and their families. 

However, occupational asbestos exposure is not the only form of recognized asbestos contamination and transmission. 

Asbestos exposure could be: 

Occupational Asbestos Exposure

  • Occupational, which occurs when workers are exposed to asbestos on the job or through work-related tasks. Occupational asbestos exposure is the leading cause of asbestos-related diseases. This can also include military asbestos exposure.

Secondary Asbestos Exposure

  • Secondary, which occurs when people who did not work directly with asbestos are nonetheless exposed to mineral fibers, whether because they share a workspace or home with someone at occupational risk. 

Product-Related Asbestos Exposure

  • Product-related, which occurs if and when an individual regularly uses, applies, or interacts with an asbestos-contaminated product. Despite the EPA’s wide-ranging bans on asbestos materials, the mineral is still found in popular consumer products. In one recent, highly publicized incident, scientists found high concentrations of asbestos in Johnson & Johnson’s talcum-based baby powders. 

Environmental Asbestos Exposure

  • Environmental, which occurs when asbestos is present in the soil or air. The World Health Organization has found that asbestos deposits could also contaminate drinking water, whether it is drawn from a well or municipal system. Since asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral, everyone could be exposed to asbestos at some point in their life. However, the presence of asbestos-related industries in a region or community significantly increases the risk of environmental asbestos exposure. 

The Risks of Environmental Asbestos Exposure are Often Underrated 

Recent findings suggest environmental asbestos exposure is more of a danger than many people realize.

The United States government passed the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act in 1986, instructing the federal Environmental Protection Agency to begin regulating the presence of asbestos in schools and other structures. By the end of the decade, the EPA took further action, banning the sale, import, and manufacture of most asbestos products. 

Tragically, A.H.E.R.A. and the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts came too late. While wide-ranging bans on asbestos products have undoubtedly saved hundreds of thousands of lives, countless Americans had already been exposed to asbestos between the 1920s and late 1970s. 

In the ensuing decades, an average of up to 15,000 people per year died from asbestos-related diseases. 

Most people who die from asbestos illnesses are former asbestos workers, or people who lived in the same households as former asbestos workers. 

However, asbestos can spread to and affect people who never directly worked with the mineral. Environmental asbestos exposure is a recognized but underrated source of danger—one that potentially could threaten the lives and livelihoods of millions of people around the world.

The Lingering Effects of Big Asbestos in Libby 

Libby is a small town in the mountains of Western Montana. 

In the early 1920s, Libby hosted a small consortium of vermiculite mines. 

Vermiculite, much like asbestos, has inherent heat-resistant properties. In fact, the two minerals often develop alongside each other. Unfortunately, in Libby, the local vermiculite mines contained massive amounts of a highly toxic, highly friable form of asbestos, tremolite-actinolite series. 

Today, the EPA calls this particular variety of asbestos “Libby Amphibole Asbestos,” or L.A. 

When W.R. Grace & Company took over Libby’s vermiculite mines in 1963, its management knew its properties were contaminated by asbestos.

However, W.R. Grace & Company warned neither its employees nor the general public. 

In the course of asbestos operations, W.R. Grace & Company exposed many of its employees to asbestos—and, by extension, their families. When miners came home from work, they would often be covered in vermiculite and asbestos dust. This dust could attach itself to almost any surface, from automobile interiors to furniture upholstery.  

By 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency declared a public health emergency in Libby, declaring W.R. Grace & Company’s negligence among the worst cases of industrial poisoning in American history. 

But asbestos did not just affect miners and their families. 

A 2016 study published in The Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology investigated incidences of asbestos-related disease and mortality among Libby residents who had no history of direct occupational vermiculite exposure. 

The researchers found that many Libby residents who passed away from asbestos illnesses never worked in or around the town’s mines. In fact, similar studies’ results suggested a causal association between the prevalence of pleural abnormalities and estimates of environmental exposure to asbestos fibers. 

Even though Libby has since been declared “safe” by the EPA, medical examiners identified asbestos-related pleuropulmonary disease is roughly half of all Libby residents who consented to screening.

Environmental Asbestos Exposure Around the World 

The United States, along with many other countries, has long-standing bans on the continued commercial uses of asbestos. 

However, not every country has taken strict action against asbestos. Iran, for instance, passed a law in 2000 ordering that asbestos production cease within seven years. Despite the rule, researchers found that millions of Iranians are exposed to potentially unsafe levels of asbestos in the air, atmosphere, and environment. 

Many countries around the world continue to wrestle with environmental asbestos exposure.

Although Iran’s last asbestos mine was closed in 2003, much of the country’s ageing infrastructure was built with asbestos-based materials. Continuous construction work, renovations, and urban expansion have raised airborne fiber concentrations to precarious heights. 

The Multifaceted Threat of Environmental Asbestos Exposure in Turkey 

In neighboring Turkey, widespread asbestos deposits have been associated with increased rates of respiratory disease. Researchers found that people across Turkey are exposed to environmental asbestos in a variety of ways: 

  • Location: Central and eastern Turkey contain significant deposits of both tremolite and chrysotile asbestos. The presence of these deposits correlates to higher incidences of both benign and malignant pleural and pulmonary diseases. 
  • Activities: In some parts of Turkey, villagers use white asbestos soil to create plastering materials and whitewash homes. Everyday activities, such as sweeping, and can unsettle the asbestos fibers in stucco, leading to elevated airborne fiber levels. 
  • Occupation: Farmers might be at higher risk for asbestos exposure simply because they cultivate lands contaminated by asbestos. 

Take Action If You Believe You Have Been Exposed to Asbestos in your Environment

Environmental asbestos exposure remains a critical public health threat, both in the United States and overseas. While the Environmental Protection Agency has restricted the production and sale of asbestos in America, anyone who lives in proximity to asbestos deposits—whether naturally occurring or industrial—remains at risk for serious asbestos-related illnesses. 

Serious asbestos-related diseases like mesothelioma have a long latency period, which means they usually do not present any significant symptoms before they are diagnosed. 

The American Society of Clinical Oncology, for instance, has found that the average age for a pleural mesothelioma diagnosis is 72. 

If you believe that you, or a loved one, have been exposed to asbestos, you may wish to:

Visit A Physician or Healthcare Professional: 

  • Asbestos-related diseases’ long latency periods mean that many people may harbor potentially life-threatening illnesses for decades. While asbestos can take years to noticeably and adversely impact an individual’s health, early detection could provide your physician with additional treatment options. 

Request Site Testing: 

  • Your city, county, or state might provide free or subsidized asbestos testing. If you suspect that your home or drinking water could be contaminated by asbestos, consider contacting your local environmental regulator or hiring a private asbestos testing company. 

Contact An Asbestos Attorney

  • If you have been diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease, you could be entitled to significant compensation through an insurance settlement, asbestos trust fund, or personal injury lawsuit. The Law Offices of Justinian C. Lane believe that nobody should be forced to bear the burden of the asbestos industry’s longstanding negligence. Please send us a message online or call us at 833-4-ASBESTOS to schedule your free, no-obligation consultation. 

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If you may have been exposed to asbestos, speak with your healthcare provider about tests and screening to help detect the presence of asbestos fibers and asbestos-related damage.

AsbestosClaims.Law

AsbestosClaims.law is your comprehensive resource for all things asbestos. We hope this information is helpful.

If you have any additional questions or concerns related to asbestos, check out our website and YouTube page for videos, infographics and answers to your questions about asbestos, including health and safety, asbestos testing, removing asbestos from your home and building, and legal information about compensation for asbestos injuries.

And if you believe that you were exposed to asbestos, or have been diagnosed with an asbestos illness, you could be entitled to significant compensation—money you could use to cover the costs of asbestos removal services, pay for medical treatment, and preemptively protect your physical well-being. 

All without filing a lawsuit.

If you’d like help with filing a claim, please get in touch by email at [email protected], or call or text us at (833) 4-ASBESTOS (427-2378) or (206) 455-9190. We’ll listen to your story and explain your options. And we never charge for anything unless you receive money in your pocket.