Tag: Mesothelioma

Where History Means Knowledge. Be Informed.

COMMUNICATING THE ASBESTOS MESSAGE: Search Engine Optimization

Asbestos related lawsuits in the United States make it difficult and expensive to effectively use social media to communicate about asbestos related issues, such as my recent thesis on the failure of the Space Shuttle Challenger’s asbestos containing putty. If you haven’t yet read my thesis, you can find it at https://theasbestosblog.com/?p=9723. This disconnect with…
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The Human Tragedy of Asbestos: October 22, 1981.

October 22, 1981 is when my dad passed away from Mesothelioma, likely arising from asbestos exposure during World War II while in the Navy. My understanding is that, in his agony, my mom may have used an especially heavy thumb on the morphine feeding machine that day. If she was able to muster that amount…
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Johns-Manville, The Story of Ted Kowalski

Rather than me telling a story this week, I have picked out a first hand recollection from the 1987 book entitled Ellis Island, the Coal Mines, to the Asbestos Capital of the World. I have chosen the comments by Ted Kowalski beginning on page 133. Mr. Kowalski, like many in his generation, moved to Manville,…
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36th Anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger Tragedy: A Retrospective by Martin Ditkof

Thank you for joining me. You can find my thesis dated January 28, 2022, thirty-six years after the Space Shuttle Challenger tragedy, to review or download at: https://theasbestosblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Space-Shuttle-Challenger-Thesis-1282022.pdf I have titled the thesis “Space Shuttle Challenger January 28, 1986 Tragedy: 36 Years Later, A Retrospective on Causation and Moral Injuries.” Please feel free to share…
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Why Ship Breaking is an Export for Developed Countries and an Import for those which are Underdeveloped: Asbestos Makes a Difference.

Ship breaking (scrapping) is a classic situation of developed countries (in World Systems terminology, “core states”) sucking up the good parts of technology, production, capital, and profits, while exporting the bad parts to lesser developed areas of the world (“periphery states”) willing to accept what the core countries allow, in exchange for taking risks otherwise…
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How to Research the Difficult; Ship Breaker Exposure to Asbestos

I am beginning my book project dealing with asbestos exposures arising from ship building, seafaring, and ship breaking (scrapping) that will be my focus for at least a couple of years. Fingers crossed on the detailed research and pulling it off informatively and with an interested readership. Right now, ship breaking is likely the most…
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Our One Year Anniversary

We went live with this website and blog one year ago as I was morphing from an attorney to a student of history. I could not be happier with the transition in regards to what I do on a day to day basis and the new friends and professionals with whom I get to hang…
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How Manville, N.J. Won the Johns-Manville Plant: 1913

I was playing around on eBay the other day and came across for sale a copy of Ellis Island, The Coal Mines, to the Asbestos Capital of the World which I described in my January 22, 2021 blog at https://theasbestosblog.com/?paged=5&page_id=147. This is quite a book and I never expected to see a second copy on…
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The Child’s Guide to Knowledge: 1865

Dedicated to my English friends across the pond. The Child’s Guide to Knowledge: Being a Collection of Useful and Familiar Questions and Answers on Every-Day Subjects, Adapted for Young Persons, and Arranged in the Most Simple and Easy Language, By a lady has one heck of a title. My electronic edition was published in London…
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Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases: A Historian’s Dream Book. 1980

This is it, so long as you are looking for information from 1899 to 1980. The Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases: Medical, Legal, and Engineering Aspects authored by George Peters and Barbara Peters published in 1980 by Garland Publishing can be yours on Amazon for anywhere between $120 and $770 at https://www.amazon.com/s?k=sourcebook+on+asbestos+peters+1980&ref=nb_sb_noss or, alternatively, you may…
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