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Where History Means Knowledge. Be Informed.

Modern Day Asbestos in a War Zone: The Ultimate Exposure

With the fighting in both Gaza and the Ukraine, the microscopic and invisible asbestos-containing dust particles released by the bombing likely will be catastrophic to those locations in the coming years. After all, you can count the dead and injured bodies, you can check out bombed buildings and start to remove rubble and then build…
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Space Shuttle Challenger 1986 Tragedy: The IBM Wall Poster

I am earnestly preparing for my October 4th three theses defense and, as such, am going to skip doing a new asbestos blog this week. Probably next week also. Rather, as I realize how so many of the asbestos exposure decisions involve cost trade offs, I would just like to bring home how safety must…
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Asbestos in World War II and Asbestos-Containing Pipe: Boy, was I Ignorant

As many of you know, I have my oral defense of my three theses on October 4th and am working to be fully prepared and ready to go. When done, I start looking at PhD programs in history related to toxic minerals in the workplace. Looking at my blogs, I really messed up not doing…
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My Weekly Blog is a Summary of Prior Blogs

My weekly asbestos blogs since December 2020 are as follows including topic, date, and live link. Marty Blog Title Date Blog Location 1 Asbestos, a Magic Mineral Dec 16, 2020 https://theasbestosblog.com/?p=619 2 A Short History Lesson Dec 16, 2020 https://theasbestosblog.com/?p=621 3 Asbestos Companies Behaving Badly Dec 28, 2020 https://theasbestosblog.com/?p=744 4 A Call to Arms Jan…
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1930 “National Problems of Canada: The Asbestos Industry of Canada” Edition Two: The Forest Fires that led to the Asbestos Availability and Good Housekeeping Practices.

This week, we continue our discussion about the 1930 book written as part of the McGill University Economic Studies titled National Problems of Canada: The Asbestos Industry of Canada authored by M. M. Mendels. This blog focusing on two issues: the Forest Fires which led to the discovery of asbestos en mass in Canada and what the…
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1930 “National Problems of Canada: The Asbestos Industry of Canada” Edition One: the First Factory for Manufacturing Asbestos Products was Established by Russia in 1760.

The 1930 book written as part of the McGill University Economic Studies entitled National Problems of Canada: The Asbestos Industry of Canada authored by M. M. Mendels is quite a domino of information not readily available elsewhere. That is, a historian’s dream. I purchased a copy on EBay and am not able to locate an…
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Eternit, Asbestos Cement, and what was Known as of 1918: If this Article Doesn’t Get You Upset, Nothing Will. The Power of Toxicdocs.org

I generally love “new to me” asbestos history, especially when it is global. This particular paper addressed and organized issues that you need to read to believe. Let’s start at the beginning. While researching some asbestos issues using Toxicdocs.org, I ran across a 2005 paper focusing on asbestos cement and Eternit which is translated into…
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1893: Asbestos Arising from the Death of Animals

Wow! The 1891-3 Journal of the General Mining Association of the Province of Quebec, published by the Offices of the Association based in Ottawa, Ontario, claims that their variety of serpentine asbestos may have originated from dead animals. In particular: “The origin of those particular serpentine layers, is an unsolved problem yet. But when we…
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Asbestos Issues at the Illinois Beach and State Park: My Summer Visit

I visited the Illinois Beach and State Park that was discussed in my recent Masters Thesis and the blog at https://theasbestosblog.com/?p=11706. My goal was to better understand the history and any current attempts by either Illinois or the United States to understand the asbestos issues and protect the citizens. Unfortunately, little is currently being done…
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1845: Complete Prior History and a Prediction on the Future uses of Asbestos

I love running across books like The History of Silk, Cotton, Linen, Wool, and Other Fibrous Substances authored in 1845 by Clinton G. Gilroy. I decided to purchase a hard copy first edition advertised on AbeBooks but electronic versions are readily available in electronic format on the Internet. See https://books.google.com/books/about/The_History_of_Silk_Cotton_Linen_Wool_an.html?id=x51BAAAAYAAJ. This book has about 7…
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