As you upgrade old electrical systems or inspect them for destruction, do you ever wonder whether the original material contained asbestos? One of my favorite resources are the older catalogs which are very thick, heavy, and data intensive. These do not replace testing, of course, but they are a good starting point for knowledge. Many…
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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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I am taking this week off to be with family. I looked through my 70 plus blogs over the last year and one-half, and decided to re-post the one which I believe is the most thought provoking: my Challenger tragedy research. You can find it at https://theasbestosblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Space-Shuttle-Challenger-Thesis-1282022.pdf. This is my first of three such research…
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By the end of World War II, the US Navy had grown from a fleet of roughly 700 commissioned ships to more than 6,000, each one bearing a unique name and constructed as part of a class of ships. This blog will focus on the Liberty Class of ships that were so essential to the war…
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Since I started blogging when I entered my Master’s in History program, I have blogged 64 times. As it is tough to track these blogs, below is a total listing with links. I plan to continue this work as I focus my research on asbestos exposures to shipbreakers and then expand this work to ship…
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As you may remember from my post last week, the 1892 Minerals Report for Asbestos discussed why Chrysotile fibers were not asbestos, although they appeared similar. See the first five sentences from the first page of that report. By 1895, the scientists threw up their hands and just refer to both asbestos and Chrysotile as…
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I was reading Facebook the other day and saw a question on whether the the types of fibers which are considered to be “asbestos” have changed through the years. I decided to blog on this issue within the bounds of my current project reviewing the USGS Minerals Yearbooks. This topic is addressed by the United…
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I have a historical sale brochure for Kaylo Insulation with no date, although we know that it has to be prior to 1958 as Owens Illinois then sold the Kaylo line to Owens Corning. This brochure is a good example of how the insulation industry was advertising their use of asbestos products. Initially, we know…
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Last week, we discussed the yearly publications on asbestos by the USGS side of the United States Government. In this Blog, we will go instead to the Environmental Protection Agency to discuss the geology history side of asbestos, with a focus on where it is naturally located and the risk of inhaling those asbestos fibers.…
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The Failure of Science Having completed my last two Blogs on Crocidolite Asbestos and Amosite Asbestos, both within the amphibole family, I was going to finally address the history surrounding the serpentine Chrysotile Asbestos. However, having again reviewed the historical science, I have decided to pass rather than to delve into science mixed with politics.…
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