I am somewhat swamped with researching my third Masters in History Thesis. This one dealing with South African blue asbestos on the shores of Lake Michigan. As such, for those of you with an interest, below is a listing of my 160 first blogs including links should you want to dig into the detailed subject…
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As many of you know, I am researching blue asbestos (crocidolite) issues, including its use in transite pressure piping manufactured at the Waukegan, IL facility. This 1969 document was part of a batch that I purchased this week from the Johns-Manville document repository. I suspect that few people have seen it during the last 30…
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I am waist deep into my thesis research, with a current focus on the Asbestos Containing Material on the Illinois State Beach Park. Just to set the baseline, as of April 1980, even the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States recognized that kids and asbestos do not mix. As stated by the EPA: “It…
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Today, we go back to 1933 and act like a fly on the wall concerning a December 14th letter from Harvard University School of Public Health (I cannot read the name of the author) to Gerard Swope, then the President of General Electric, Inc. There is a lot to unpack in this letter. Initially, the…
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I have completed my “final draft” proposal for my third thesis in my Master’s of History program at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. I have stated the research issue as follow: “The specific issue to be addressed in this thesis is the historic use of blue asbestos within the Johns-Manville Corporation manufacturing facility in…
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There is very little, asbestos wise, more fun than a deep dig into historical issues. Today, we examine exactly when asbestos became useful rather than primarily a play-thing. Fortunately, I happen to have a hard copy of a document which conclusively answers that question; well, at least for England. I believe that this document, an…
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My third thesis for the Masters in History program will likely involve tracking asbestos (primarily blue) sold by Cape Asbestos in South Africa to Johns-Manville for use in the JM Waukegan, Illinois site and which, over time, found itself into Lake Michigan, onto the Illinois beaches, or as being within the superfund clean-up site. The…
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I first posted my full research project discussing this Internet myth during January 2022 in the blog located at https://theasbestosblog.com/?p=9723 and then again in a blog during January 2023 at https://theasbestosblog.com/?p=10618. The full blown 75 page research paper with footnotes and bibliography can be read at https://theasbestosblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Space-Shuttle-Challenger-Thesis-1282022.pdf. If you are interested in the topic but…
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Once again, science is either the problem or, it has advanced so far as to change what old school scientists thought was not subject to any dispute. While undertaking my asbestos historical research, I ran across the issue of whether asbestos was a potential cause of tuberculosis. I can already see many of my technology…
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I get a fair number of requests focused on asbestos issues arising from older home construction. Given that this is not my sweet spot on the historical use of asbestos, I have linked at https://theasbestosblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/1989-Asbestos-in-Home-CPSC.pdf a 1989 joint publication by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission that…
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