Resumen: For thousands de years, a group de minerals known as asbesto have been called a “miracle mineral,” prized for their amazing propiedades and resistance to the elements. But that durability makes asbesto a carcinogen and cause de various illnesses. 

Minado y calumniado

El asbesto is, without any doubt, the world’s most maligned mineral—and for good reason. While humans have mined, harvested, and worked with asbesto materiales desde tiempos inmemoriales, we only have recently begun to realize its many dangers. An ever-growing body de research suggests that people who have endured long-term, occupational exposure to asbesto are at increased risk for a litany de illnesses and disease. 

Scientists now believe that there is no safe level of asbestos exposure. Despite wide-ranging asbesto bans in the United States, Australia, and the European Union, asbesto is still believed to cause anywhere between 90,000 y 260,000 muertes en todo el mundo, cada año. 

Sin embargo, nuestra aversión social al asbesto es un subproducto de investigaciones sorprendentemente recientes. Antes de mediados del siglo XX, el asbesto era un “mineral milagroso”, que se usaba para crear de todo, desde ropa resistente al fuego hasta láminas de cemento y tejas para techos.

The Six Shapes of Asbestos 

El asbesto is not a scientific name. It is an industrial name for a series de minerals that have similar useful propiedades and resistance to heat and other elements.

U.S. El asbesto Hazard Emergency Response Act

The U.S. El asbesto Hazard Emergency Response Act, signed into law in October de 1986, established basic asbesto response and containment strategies for educational institutions across the United States. 

All types of asbestos are dangerous

Al redactar la Ley, los legisladores identificaron six particularly dangerous forms of asbestos: 

  • El cristolito asbesto, once used in “thousands” de commercial products. Sometimes called “white asbesto,” chrysotile accounts for the vast majority de contemporary asbesto producción. 
  • Amosita asbesto, or “brown asbesto,” was widely used in the fabrication de different construction materials. While the continued used de amosite has ground to a halt, it can still be found in old cement sheets, pipe insulation, and ceiling tiles.
  • Crocidolita asbesto, or “blue asbesto,” is perhaps the most hazardous member de la asbesto family. Since crocidolite asbesto is comprised de extremely fine—and extremely sharp—fibers, it is very easy to inhale. Crocidolite was mixed into cement, tiles, and insulation materials. 
  • Antofilita asbesto, which resembles needles under the microscope and can range in color from brown to yellow. Anthophyllite asbesto is rare and was not widely used in industry. However, it can sometimes be found in algunos cementos y materiales aislantes. 
  • Tremolita asbesto, known for its heat-resistant propiedades, has such delicate fibers that they can be woven into clothing. 
  • Actinolita asbesto, which is comprised de several different minerals, including calcium, magnesium, iron, and silicon. Actinolite is usually dark, and can be found in older paint, cement, sealants, and drywall. 

“Magical” Properties of Asbestos

El asbesto has been compared to plagues and called un desastre global. But unlike some de humanity’s greatest scourges, asbesto is not man-made. In fact, “asbesto” is a sort de hypernym—an “umbrella term” that refers to an entire category de minerals. 

While definitions of asbestos have varied across time, the term typically refers to minerals that can be easily separated into long, flexible fibers. El asbesto minerals have other common propiedades, too. Even after it is broken down into fibers, asbesto is strong, resilient, and heat-resistant. 

El asbesto in the Ancient World

Hoy sabemos que el asbesto is an incredibly dangerous substance, capable de inflicting respiratory distress and severe illness, up to and including cancer. 

Sin embargo, asbesto has a history as old as humanity’s. For centuries, asbesto’ many uses were cherished by artisans and industry. Ancient people used asbesto for the same reasons as 20° : era resistente, podía fortalecer materiales más débiles y no se quemaba ni se incendiaba fácilmente. 

Mankind’s First Encounters with El asbesto 

We do not know exactly when or why people first started to harvest asbesto. However, some de the first verifiable uses of asbestos date back thousands de years. In eastern Finland, archaeologists uncovered asbesto-laced ceramics en sitios junto al lago en Karelia, incluidos peines, cerámica y loza. 

Algunos de these artifacts have been dated to 3600 B.C., around the same time that the Egyptians began mummifying their dead. Interestingly, asbesto was also used by the Egyptians, who would weave precious asbesto fibers into the same lino que se usaba para envolver a las momias. 

El asbesto in Ancient Greece 

El asbesto was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who actively sought out the “miracle mineral.” The Greek historian Heródoto, for instance, observed that asbesto had seemingly spectacular propiedades: it could be woven into burial shrouds to stave off degradation, or added to candle wicks, thereby letting flames burn longer and brighter. 

The ancient Greeks established the first documented asbesto quarry on Evvoia, a large island some 50 miles northeast de Athens, where they would collect asbesto fibers and spin them like wool, weaving them into fire-resistant garments. In other Greek kingdoms and city-states, asbesto was used to create fantastical napkins, which, “when soiled, are thrown into the fire and cleaned, as in the washing de linen.” 

Around the same time, ordinary people began to recognize the benefits of asbestos for themselves: town-houses were built from “stone and asbesto.” In rural Greece, asbesto was broken down and mixed with paints and other minerals to create hardy white-washes and stuccos.

El asbesto and the Sacred Fire de Vesta 

Ancient people had other uses for asbesto, too—uses that elevated asbesto to near-mythical dimensions.

The philosopher Theophrastus provided a first-hand written account of asbestos, describiéndolo as “a stone, in its external appearance somewhat resembling wood, on which, if oil is poured, it burns; but when the oil is burnt away, the burning de the stone ceases, as if it in itself is not liable to such accidents.” 

The Romans seem to have used asbesto for similar purposes, even giving it an exalted place in their most holy de holy sites: the Temple de Vesta. 

The Temple de Vesta served many purposes throughout Roman history; when Julius Caesar wrote a Will to appoint Octavius his heir and successor, he sent the original copy to the temple’s Vestal Virgins. While the Vestal Virgins were the care-takers de wills and other valuable documents, their most important task was tending to the “sacred fire” within the temple, which symbolized the eternal prosperity and safety de Rome. 

At some point, the Vestal Virgins seem to have adopted asbesto in service de the sacred flame. Plutarch—a Greek philosopher who eventually became a Roman citizen—noted that the Virgins had “perpetual” lamps, which they used to serve the eternal flame. 

The Medieval Myth de the Man-Eating El asbesto Salamander

The ancient Greeks and Romans clearly knew that asbesto had special propiedades—and, unlike their successors, understood where it came from. 

After the fall de the Western Roman Empire, many historical European peoples seem to have forgotten the “miracle mineral.” When asbesto surfaced in books and records, it was often described as an exotic invention. Medieval bestiaries went so far as to attribute the rumored existence de flame-retardant linens to las salamandras devoradoras de hombres, the skin de which, they said, could be repurposed into fireproof clothing. 

Eventually, the famed merchant and explorer Marco Polo offered a more rational—if overlooked—explanation. After being told about the “salamander skin” garments de the Mongolian Khanate, Marco Polo recounted a story told by a Turkish acquaintance. 

In his journal, Polo wrote, “[The] real truth is that the Salamander is no beast, as they allege in our part de the world, but it is a substance found in the earth; and I will tell you about it.” 

“Now I, Marco Polo, had a Turkish acquaintance de the name de Zurficar, and he was a very clever fellow,” escribió Marco Polo. “And this Turk related to [Polo] how he had lived three years in that region on behalf de the Great Khan, in order to procure those Salamanders for him. He said that the way they got them was by digging in that mountain ‘til they found a certain vein. The substance de this vein was then taken and crushed, and when so treated it divides as it were into fibres de wool, which they set forth to dry.” 

“Estos luego se hilaron y se convirtieron en servilletas”, dijo. “Cuando se hacen por primera vez, estas servilletas no son muy blancas, pero al ponerlas en el fuego por un tiempo salen blancas como la nieve. Y así, de nuevo, siempre que están sucios, se blanquean poniéndolos en el fuego”. 

Si bien Marco Polo parece haber descubierto la verdad detrás del antiguo mito de la "salamandra", el concepto erróneo persistió durante siglos, y autores posteriores describieron a las salamandras como bestias cubiertas de lana o piel. 

El asbesto and the Industrial Revolution 

The story of asbestos is, in a great many ways, as old as the story de mankind.

However, even though people and civilizations across different times and spaces actively sought out this so-called “miracle mineral,” asbesto production remained limited and localized up until the early 18° siglo XX.

Russia and the Town de Asbest

After the Medieval Era, Russia became one de the world’s leading producers of asbestos. Peter the Great, coronated “sovereign emperor de the Russias” in 1682, was among the first modern leaders to invest heavily in the asbesto industry. Under Peter, Russia began fabricating asbesto papers from chrysolite fibers cosechadas en los Montes Urales. 

For years, Russia steadily strengthened its asbesto industry, going so far as to establish an entire town named after the mineral: Asbest, a settlement nestled in the hills east de Yekaterinburg, the latter city made infamous by the Bolshevik slaughter de the royal Romanov family after the Russian Revolution. While Asbest was not formally incorporated until the 1800s, its residents still tell tales de Peter the Great’s love for its namesake mineral. In un cuento de Asbesto, un viajero que pasó por la región adquirió un lino resistente al calor para Pedro el Grande. Él “entonces prendió fuego a su presente […] un mantel”, sacudiendo las llamas para deleite del zar. 

Russia and Asbest are still top producers de industriales asbesto worldwide

Today, both Russia and Asbest continue to process asbesto on an industrial scale.

While Peter the Great may have encouraged—or perhaps compelled—his countrymen to mine asbesto, the mineral assumed global importance in the waning days de the Industrial Revolution. Between the mid-1800s and the early 20° siglo XX asbesto became integral to global economic growth and innovation. Researchers believe that the sudden “asbesto boom” can be attributed to the characteristics de the era: la Revolución Industrial permitió que los productos se fabricaran en una escala nunca antes vista. Al mismo tiempo, la gente se mudaba del campo a las ciudades, creando una necesidad intensa de viviendas duraderas. 

El asbesto—once used for pottery, paper, and tablecloths—was now being used to fabricate engine covers, fortalecer ladrillos y aislar edificios. 

A pesar de las asbesto’s widespread and varied uses, it did not take long for physicians to suspect that asbesto was making workers sick. The asbesto industry itself had concerns, going so far as to ask Dr. Anthony J. Lanza—a former federal health official—to investigate reports of asbestos-related disease in the early 1930s. 

After engineering a first-de-its kind study, Dr. Lanza confirmed what we all know today: that asbesto es responsable de una wide variety de medical problems, incluido el cáncer. 

However, the asbesto industry never acted on Dr. Lanza’s research. Instead de warning the public de asbesto’s dangers, encargaron más informes y luego guardaron bajo llave los resultados, preservando sus ganancias al no proteger la salud pública. 

Coming Next in El asbesto: The Miracle Mineral – Part II: El asbesto At Work

From the steam engine to the space race, the fireproofing, durability and resistance properties of asbestos are put to work, forming the backbone de the industrial revolution.

AsbestosClaims.Law

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

If you have any additional questions or concerns related to asbesto, check out our sitio web y página de YouTube for videos, infographics and answers to your questions about asbesto, including health and safety, asbesto testing, removing asbesto from your home and building, and legal information.

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

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