Asbestos Substitutes: A little History

For those of you interested in the developmental history for asbestos substitutes, I have chosen to discuss this week the EPA Model Asbestos Worker & Contractor/Supervisory Training Manual, Student’s Manual provided for abatement training in the mid-1990s. To be clear, I have a number of other publications discussing the status of inventing substitutes and the elimination of asbestos fibers from the 3000 or so products in which they were used, but this particular publication is pretty concise and is meant to be an easy read. The publication also contains a lot of information on other asbestos related issues should you want a high level and easy to read introduction to asbestos use and hazards.

Let’s start out with the back cover warning. This is, or was in the 1990s, not the best danger sign in the world, but at least it was in color and stood out.

The Table of Contents for this Book is as below. Note that the Asbestos Substitutes discussion begins in Section XVI. The other sections of the book are also worth reviewing if you have the time and interest.

The Preface to the book is as follows.

As to the listing of asbestos substitutes as of the mid-1990s, hold on to your hat because they are extensive. Now, as of that time frame, there were still some continued uses of asbestos which likely could be justified in the developed world; however, they were far and few between. Items such as certain heat protection on the Space Shuttles or a couple of brakes on extremely high performance cars; however, those were the exception and not the mainstream. The below listing of the substitutes is one of my favorites because it discusses both the type of products and the brand names of the substitutes then available. I have only included some of the pages as the complete listing is somewhat long for a blog, but you get the picture.

I have the above book available to lend in hard copy format to anyone with an interest. Just be aware that many resources exist for you to undertake historical research on the development of non-asbestos containing substitutes, and that you just need to know where to begin.

Please leave me a comment or email me at TheAsbestosBlog@gmail.com with any suggestions.