My third and final thesis for my masters program is titled “South African Blue Asbestos Fibers at the Illinois Beach State Park: Mistakes of our Past, Concerns for the future” located at https://theasbestosblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IBSP-5-52024.pdf. I hope that you find it interesting and informative. Although this paper focuses on issues in Illinois, the paradox of satisfying safety/environmental…
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I am just about done with my third research thesis as required for the Master’s in History Program at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. This thesis is tentatively titled: SOUTH AFRICAN BLUE ASBESTOS FIBERS AT THE ILLINOIS BEACH STATE PARK: MISTAKES OF OUR PAST AND LESSONS FOR OUR FUTURE I have a few…
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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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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 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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Below is a listing with hot links to each of my 150 asbestos history blogs since December 2020. It has been a wonderful three years and I appreciate the interest so many of my friends have shown. My total view count is about to reach 22,000 for these last three years. My blogs are intended…
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I have previously posted about Asbestos Fundamentals, a German origin book published by Hans Berger and then translated to English by Ralph Oesper, then of the University of Cincinnati, in 1963. At 171 pages, it is an amazing resource. Today, we are going to discuss Chapter 3 entitled “Historical Development,” The discussion begins with Callimachus…
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We write and talk a great deal about asbestos fibers arising from occupational exposure, but what about those same fibers in your breathing zone just because of where you live? I don’t mean the real hot spots like Libby, Montana or Wittenoom, Australia; we all know the horrors faced by residents in those communities when…
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