I suspect that the title might have a few of you scratching your head. That’s okay as we should all learn at least one new thing every day. This proposition of asbestos combining the three kingdoms was discussed by Oliver Bowles in his 1946 book entitled Asbestos: The Silk of the Mineral Kingdom which he…
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For those of you interested in researching specific topics in asbestos history, whether for lawsuits or otherwise, finding the primary source materials is critical. At the same time, secondary sources by scientists and historians in the know are a good starting point. One of my favorite research books is the 1963 Asbestos Fundamentals: origin, properties,…
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The need for better technology to determine the presence of asbestos fibers in the air and in materials was brought home recently in the 2020 study entitled “Asbestos-containing materials in abandoned residential dwellings in Detroit” by a team of authors led by Dr. Alfred Franzblau at the University of Michigan. The most important findings of…
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Breaking ships at the end of their lives (versus sinking them to be a reef in the Ocean or turning them into museums) is big business with a lot of battles between purchasers/countries that want the business and steel against environmental and labor groups. Publicity matters; a lot. Just Google ” aircraft carrier San Paulo”…
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As I dig into the historical research concerning these seemingly independent concepts and begin to conceptualize my analysis, I have found one scholar who’s work has directly touched on all three of these issues. R. Scott Frey authored a paper entitled “The International Traffic in Asbestos” in 2006 and authored “Breaking Ships in the World-System:…
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What do you get when you combine asbestos, one of the most dangerous minerals in the world, https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/deadliest-minerals-and-gemstones.html (number 3 per this article) with ship breaking in Bangladesh, called by at least one article as “the most dangerous job on the plant.” Certainly a topic worth discussing and, for me, worth devoting the next 9…
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I am on vacation this week and heading out to meet my new grandson. As such, for my Blog, I will simply point you in the direction of my very first Blog from December 16, 2020 at https://theasbestosblog.com/?p=619 for your reading pleasure. Since then, my 70 plus Blogs have received over 9500 views. I am…
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Let us start of today with a scientific formula. The risk of bad or incomplete asbestos history = increasing the risk of mistakes, which leads to > than necessary bad science, law, and errors. I think that we have all been in the room when an otherwise knowledgeable person says something that sounds a bit…
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When it comes to asbestos related historical science, we have a number of failures that confuse rather than clarify. Just look at my blog from March 5, 2021 entitled “The Disappearing Blog on Chrysotile Asbestos” posted at https://theasbestosblog.com/?p=2052 for a discussion on some of these issues. The scientific literature on whether asbestos related cancers arising…
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As many of you have figured out, I have an extensive repository of historical asbestos related documents. The large number of diverse documents provides me the opportunity to help broaden our collective knowledge. Let’s go English this week with a 1985 publication by Sir Richard Doll which is a great primer for people trying to…
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