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1900-1950
World World II
1950-1970
1970-2000
Today

Asbestos Timeline

While asbestos manufacturers became aware of its hazards in the 1950s, most kept quiet. The industry had realized that more than 40 percent of asbestos miners and 28 percent of asbestos processing workers were contracting asbestos-related diseases after ten years of work.

Manufacturers also knew that workers’ families were at risk of asbestos-related disease. The fibers brought home on employees’ clothing came into contact with the spouses who laundered it and to the children who greeted their parents with a hug. However, asbestos manufacturers continued to conceal the dangers from their employees, as illustrated in this timeline of events and the subsequent regulations passed.

1900-1950

1918 – a U.S. insurance company published a study showing a significant number of premature deaths among workers in the asbestos industry. The study suggested that those who live with asbestos workers—their wives and children—are also at a higher risk of developing mesothelioma.

1924 – pathologist Dr. Cooke reported on the occupational risks of asbestos in Britain.

1924 – The first diagnosis of asbestosis was made in the UK. The UK regulated ventilation and made asbestosis an excusable work-related disease, about ten years sooner than the U.S.

1926 – the Massachusetts Industrial Accidents Board processed the first successful compensation claim by a sick asbestos worker, which was eventually settled without a trial.

1927 – Dr. Cooke reported that one 33-year old male worker was the only survivor out of ten workers in an asbestos carding room.

1927 – a foreman in the weaving department of a Massachusetts asbestos factory filed the first known U.S. workers' compensation claim. The state awarded compensation.

1929 – eleven workers sued Johns- Manville, a major asbestos company, for asbestos exposure. They settled for $30,000.

1930 – first reported autopsy of an asbestosis sufferer was conducted in the U.S. and later presented by a doctor at the Mayo Clinic.

1930 – Johns-Manville, produced a report, for internal company use only, about medical reports of asbestos worker fatalities.

1930 – the first medical survey of asbestos workers was published by researchers Merewether and Prince, publicizing that one in every four asbestos workers suffered from asbestosis. It’s investigation, and findings prompted improved regulation and inclusion of the asbestos industry into the British Workers’ Compensation Act

1932 – a letter from U.S. Bureau of Mines to asbestos manufacturer Eagle-Picher said, "It is now known that asbestos dust is one of the most dangerous dusts to which man is exposed.”

1932 – A maintenance worker in a federal hospital filed an asbestosis claim that resulted in the first disability award.

1933 – Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. doctors found that 29% of workers in a Johns-Manville plant had asbestosis.

1934 – officials at Johns-Manville and Raybestos-Manhattan, edited an article about the diseases of asbestos workers written by a Metropolitan Life Insurance Company doctor. The changes downplayed the danger of asbestos dust.

1935 – officials of Johns-Manville and Raybestos-Manhattan instructed the editor of Asbestos magazine to publish nothing about asbestosis.

1936 – a group of asbestos companies agreed to sponsor research on the health effects of asbestos dust, but required complete control over the disclosure of the results.

1942 – an internal Owens-Corning memo referred to "medical literature on asbestosis....scores of publications in which the lung and skin hazards of asbestos are discussed."

1942 or 1943 – the president of Johns-Manville, said that the managers of another asbestos company were "a bunch of fools for notifying employees who had asbestosis."

1942 – Dr. Heuper, the first chief of the environmental cancer section of the National Cancer Institute, suggested that asbestos caused a cancer risk for those in all lines of production and installation of asbestos based products. The following year, the first case of an asbestos-linked mesothelial tumor was reported.

1944 – a Metropolitan Life Insurance Company report found 42 cases of asbestosis among 195 asbestos miners.

1949 – over two hundred published references of asbestos-related disease were available to the public, including a warning by Dr. Heuper that asbestos causes a cancer risk to the general population.

1949 – edition of Encyclopedia Brittanica also made a note that asbestos poses a risk of occupational and environmental cancer.

World War II Accelerates Asbestos Use

Health problems began to surface among shipyard workers who handled asbestos insulation during World War II. The use of asbestos increased dramatically during World War II.

Amazing as it sounds, today’s OSHA 8-hour limit for asbestos intake was what shipyard workers inhaled with each breath of air. Here’s more:

• Approximately 100,000 people in the U.S. have died, or will die, from asbestos exposure related to ship building.

• There were approximately 4.3 million shipyard workers during WWII; for every thousand workers about fourteen died of mesothelioma and an unknown number died from asbestosis.

• Shipyard insulation sprayers inhaled as many as 100,000 fibers for every breath of air they took at work—compared to today’s OSHA limit of 100,000-fibers for every 8 hours.

• Thousands of tons of asbestos were used in ships to wrap the pipes, line the boilers, and cover engine and turbine parts.

After World War II, Japan used asbestos in the manufacture of ammonium sulfate for rice production, and sprayed the substance on the ceilings, iron skeletons, and walls of railroad cars and buildings.
Production peaked in 1974 and experienced ups and downs in usage until about 1990, when production substantially dropped.

Australia after the end of the war also used asbestos widely in construction and other industries. After increasing concern about its dangers, mining was halted in 1983, and usage phased out in 1989, before being banned entirely in 2004.

1950-1970

1951 – asbestos companies removed all references to cancer before allowing publication of research they sponsored.

1952 – Dr. Kenneth Smith, Johns-Manville medical director, recommended (unsuccessfully) that warning labels be attached to products containing asbestos.

1953 – National Gypsum's safety director wrote to the Indiana Division of Industrial Hygiene, recommending that acoustic plaster mixers wear respirators "because of the asbestos used in the product."

1955 – a major epidemiological study conducted concluded that asbestos workers faced a risk of developing lung cancer tenfold from that of the general population.

1960 – a subsequent epidemiological study confirmed that asbestos exposure causes malignant mesothelioma.

mid-1960s – a major researcher at New York's Mt. Sinai Hospital released a report on the occupational safety hazards of asbestos. Medical and trade literature continued to describe asbestos as a dangerous occupational and environmental hazard.

1970s – asbestos was used to fireproof roofing and flooring, for heat insulation, and for a variety of other purposes, such as partitioning and doors on oil platforms and rigs.

1970-2000: Regulations Finally Stick

1970 – The issue of asbestos-related disease reached a crisis stage, forcing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to place severe restrictions on the use of asbestos. Although the EPA lifted the ban for certain kinds of asbestos in 1991, the public's faith had been severely shaken, and most manufacturers had removed asbestos from their products.

1973 – usage at about 880,000 tons/yr (800,000 metric tons/yr).

1994 – the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) set the maximum allowed exposure to fibers.

early 1990’s – full disclosure of contaminants became the industry standard.

1997 – usage falls to less than 44,000 tons/yr (40,000 metric tons/yr).

1999 – the introduction of the Fairness in Asbestos Compensation Act, which was a judgment stipulating resources should be spent on delivering full and prompt compensation to those who are, and will become, impaired by asbestos disease. Fairness to all parties was its goal.

Status Today

The EPA has proposed a concentration limit of seven million fibers per liter of drinking water for long fibers (lengths greater than, or equal to 5 µm).

OSHA has set limits of 100,000 fibers with lengths greater than, or equal to 5 µm per cubic meter of workplace air for eight-hour shifts and 40-hour work weeks.

Today workers are protected from exposure to asbestos because of federal regulations and legal enforcement. Unfortunately, legislation cannot undo the damage that was done to those who worked in asbestos related jobs prior to 1980s. Tragically, the dangers of asbestos continue to make news:

World Trade Center: Asbestos was used in the first forty floors of one tower and sixty four floors of the other. Some building experts have suggested that the towers might have better withstood the impact of the planes had the 1971 ban not stopped the completion of asbestos coating.

“There were hundreds of tons of asbestos-loaded fire retardants on the steel trusses of the lower floors” quoted Dr. Phil Landrigan of Mount Sinai Medical Center’s department of community and environmental medicine. “The emergency workers are going to suffer from increased disease and the amount of fibers probably being inhaled by those living and working in lower Manhattan presents serious questions for their future health.”

Schools: According to the EPA, as many as 733,000 schools and public buildings in the country today contain asbestos insulation.

Consumer Product: In May 2000, the maker of Crayola, and the other crayon makers agreed to stop using talc (which can be contaminated with asbestos) in their products, and changed their product formulations in the United States.

 

References:
Asbestos in Japan
Asbestos: Medical and Legal Aspects, Castleman
Australian Broadcasting Corporation Fact File
Cancer Research
EPA clarification on asbestos
Magic Mineral to Killer Dust, Broduer
Outrageous Misconduct: The Asbestos Industry on Trial, Broduer
Shipbuilding’s Deadly Legacy, Burke
Shipyards, a Crucible for Tragedy, Burke
Testimony of Charles H. Roener
ToxFAQs for Asbestos
The Madison Record