Why is asbestos still killing people?
Asbestos is a known carcinogen with studies connecting the fibers to lung damage as far back as the 1920s. Despite almost 100 years of awareness, many countries, including the United States, refuse to ban asbestos.
The Smithsonian Magazine recently highlighted a 2014 article focused on the controversial history of asbestos and draws comparisons to the tobacco industry in an attempt to prove certain levels of exposure are safe. Nic Fleming wrote ‘Killer Dust’ for Mosaic last March and began his article with this question:
“Why is asbestos still killing people?”
The deadly history of asbestos began more than 4,000 years ago when it was used to strengthen clay pots. Fast-forward 2,500 years where asbestos was used to create fireproof napkins. Eventually, the flame-resistant properties of the fibers led to many asbestos products, from pipes to insulation to bricks. Concerns began to rise at the end of the 19th century with research from the 1950s confirming the hazardous nature of asbestos.
A yarn spinner from England marked the official first death due to asbestos exposure. Nellie Kershaw was just 33 when she died from ‘asbestos poisoning’ in 1924 after working for five years in a factory. A 1927 study led to dust control regulations in England but no asbestos ban.
Later, asbestos company executives in the United States studied five textile mills and found almost all workers had asbestosis, but failed to publish the results. Many studies continued, but the asbestos industry attempted to defraud or cover up the data. In the 1940s and 1950s, the lungs of miners were secretly sent to a lab in New York to be autopsied. This behavior continued for years with the working-class used as guinea pigs to determine the ill health effects of asbestos exposure.
Evidence continued to emerge as the asbestos industry entered its fastest period of growth between 1960 and 1980. When most of the production occurred after 1960, it was clear asbestos led to lung cancer and mesothelioma, yet workers weren’t informed.
Around this time, the asbestos companies hired a public relations firm used by the tobacco industry and switched strategies as needed to maintain asbestos wasn’t as dangerous as the research suggested. Defenses ranged from it was only harmful in older workers because of past factory conditions to white asbestos (chrysotile) is safe with monitored exposure limits.
More than half a century after studies definitely proved the connection between asbestos exposure and lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis, yet there still isn’t a worldwide ban. The World Health Organization estimates 107,000 people die each year from asbestos exposure and originally predicted deaths in the United States around 10,000 a year. The EWG Action Fund recently projected that number to be higher, ranging from 12,000 to 15,000 asbestos-related deaths each year.
Research suggests there is no safe level of exposure, despite the care taken today to eliminate risks. To be safe, OSHA maintains the safe level is 0.1 fibers/cubic centimeters of air, but a recent study spanning 1984 to 2011 found many cases where the f/cc levels were much higher.
No matter the justification, asbestos exposure is still deadly. Asbestos-related diseases can take decades to develop and without radical surgery, only 40 percent of mesothelioma patients live past the first year after diagnosis. Workers and their families are at risk even if they worked in a steel mill or factory many years ago.
If you were exposed to asbestos and received a lung cancer, asbestosis or mesothelioma diagnosis, contact us today. We’re here to help.
