Asbestos Books

The Way from Dusty Death: Turner and Newall and the Regulation of Occupational Health in the British Asbestos Industry, 1890-1970 This study explores the regulation of occupational health in the British asbestos industry from the recognition in the late 1890s that asbestos dust might pose a health hazard until the establishment of the 1969 Asbestos regulations. Whereas almost all of those who have written on this subject have attacked the entire asbestos industry and all its works, The Way from Dusty Death takes a more balanced view. It accepts the history of asbestos and health as in many ways a human tragedy, but it rejects simplistic, universalised arguments that this has been a tragedy with a cast only of villains, dupes and victims. The historical account includes the emergence of medical, and then official, concern about the three diseases related to asbestos (asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma) the legislative process during and after the 1930s and the impact of the 1931 Asbestos Industry Regulations. The book brings together much previously unexamined material - including copious government records, combined with unimpeded access to the vast archive of documents kept by the leading British asbestos manufacturer, Turner and Newall - to present a unique analysis of occupational health and its regulation in the 20th Century.

Reconstructed from hundreds of hours of interviews and thousands of pages of documentation, this multi-award-winning saga of high finance is a clear depiction of industrial history, legal intrigue, medical breakthrough, and human frailty. Focusing on James Hardie Industries and the disastrous effects of asbestos in the Australian workplace, this study provides an insightful commentary on modern business ethics.

Defending the Indefensible: The Global Asbestos Industry and its Fight for Survival In the early twentieth century, asbestos had a reputation as a lifesaver. In 1960, however, it became known that even relatively brief exposure to asbestos can cause mesothelioma, a virulent and lethal cancer.
Yet the bulk of the world's asbestos was mined after 1960. Asbestos usage in many countries continued unabated.
This is the first global history of how the asbestos industry and its allies in government, insurance, and medicine defended the product throughout the twentieth century. It explains how mining and manufacture could continue despite overwhelming medical evidence as to the risks. The argument advanced in this book is that asbestos has proved so enduring because the industry was able to mount a successful defense strategy for the mineral--a strategy that still operates in some parts of the world. This defence involved the shaping of the public debate by censoring, and sometimes corrupting, scientific research, nurturing scientific uncertainty, and using allies in government, insurance, and medicine.
The book also discusses the problems of asbestos in the environment, compensating victims, and the continued use of asbestos in the developing world. Its global focus shows how asbestos can be seen as a model for many occupational diseases--indeed for a whole range of hazards produced by industrial societies. The book is based on a wealth of documentary material gained from legal discovery, supplemented by evidence from the authors' visits and researches in the US, the UK, Canada, Kazakhstan, Zimbabwe, Australia, Swaziland, and South Africa.

Asbestos Litigation: Costs and Compensation The authors analyze the costs and compensation paid for asbestos personal-injury claims, and discuss such issues as the current state of asbestos litigation in the United States, the costs of compensation, the effects of litigation on businesses, and the evolving character of litigation.

An Air That Kills: How the Asbestos Poisoning of Libby, Montana, Uncovered a National Scandal An Air That Kills is the horrifying true story of the decades-long poisoning of a small town and the definitive exposé of asbestos in America-all told by the prize-winning journalists who broke it.

This is the story of miners who were unaware of the toxins they took into their lungs, then brought home in their clothes-infecting their families. It is the story of the ongoing use of asbestos in products ranging from insulation to cat litter. It is the story behind the George W. Bush administration's successful campaign to cover up the full extent of the post-9/11 asbestos problem in Lower Manhattan. But it is also the story of the townspeople and government workers who took on the government in Washington to demand justice for those who died-and those who are still dying-of preventable exposure to asbestos.

Short, thin asbestos fibers contribute to the development of human malignant mesothelioma: pathological evidence [An article from: International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health] This digital document is a journal article from International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, published by Elsevier in 2005. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Based on animal studies, long and thin asbestos fibers (>=8@mm in length and =<0.25@mm in width) have been postulated to be strongly carcinogenic inducing pleural malignant mesothelioma, while shorter, thicker fibers have been postulated to pose a lesser risk (Stanton hypothesis). The objective of this study is to test the validity of the Stanton hypothesis through direct pathologic analysis of human mesothelioma tissue. Digested bulk tissue samples, or ashed 25@mm thick sections, or both, were prepared from lung and mesothelial tissues taken from 168 cases of human malignant mesothelioma. In these tissues, 10,575 asbestos fibers (4820 in the lung and 5755 in mesothelial tissues (1259 in fibrotic serosa and 4496 in mesotheliomatous tissue)) were identified by high-resolution analytical electron microscopy. Dimensions of these asbestos fibers were measured in printed electron micrographs. Results were as follows: (1) long, thin asbestos fibers c onsistent with the Stanton hypothesis comprised only 2.3% of total fibers (247/10,575) in these tissues; (2) the majority (89.4%) of the fibers in the tissues examined were shorter than or equal to 5@mm in length (9454 of 10,575), and generally (92.7%) smaller than or equal to 0.25@mm in width (9808 of 10,575). (3) Among asbestos types detected in the lung and mesothelial tissues, chrysotile was the most common asbestos type to be categorized as short, thin asbestos fibers. (4) Compared with digestion technique of the bulk tissue, ashing technique of the tissue section was more effective to detect short, thin fibers. We conclude that contrary to the Stanton hypothesis, short, thin, asbestos fibers appear to contribute to the causation of human malignant mesothelioma. Such fibers were the predominant fiber type detected in lung and mesothelial tissues from human mesothelioma patients. These findings suggest that it is not prudent to take the position that short asbestos fibers convey little risk of disease.

Magic Mineral to Killer Dust: Turner & Newall and the Asbestos Hazard Asbestos was once known as the 'magic mineral' because of its ability to withstand flames. Yet since the 1970s, it has become a notorious and feared 'killer dust' that is responsible for thousands of deaths and an epidemic that will continue for many years.

Asbestos and Other Fibrous Materials: Mineralogy, Crystal Chemistry, and Health Effects This comprehensive sourcebook describes the chemical, physical, and mineralogical aspects of fibrous inorganic materials, both synthetic and naturally occurring. A general description of the fibrous state, the range of compounds that can adopt this form, and an overview of the characteristics unique to such materials form the backbone of the book . The authors also assess the application and use of asbestos and other fibrous materials in industry and evaluate their potential as health hazards. The information gathered here will be highly useful to medical investigators and legal professionals involved in environmental health.

Beyond the Factory Gates: Asbestos And Health in Twentieth Century America Beyond the Factory Gates examines the issue of asbestos and health in the USA between the early 1900's to the mid-1970s. Areas covered include the emergence of medical concern about the three fatal diseases related to asbestos (asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma); the actions of the US Navy (the main consumer of asbestos-based insulation products); the response of the federal government before and after enactment of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970; and the roles of organized labour and the asbestos industry.

The book provides an important insight into occupational health and its regulation in twentieth century America, and is original in several ways. First, there is no satisfactory history of asbestos, health and medicine in the USA - a major gap in the literature. Second, no previous publication has examined the asbestos issue 'beyond the factory gates' in a non-manufacturing context and explored the complex interactions between organised labour, the US Government, business corporations and the US navy. Finally, Beyond the Factory Gates avoids the one-sided, anti-business interpretations that predominate much of the existing literature. It accepts that the history of asbestos is in many ways a human tragedy, but it rejects simplistic, universalised arguments that this has been a tragedy with a cast only villains, dupes and victims.

Asbestos: Risk Assessment, Epidemiology, and Health Effects, Second Edition While there are hundreds of books available on many different aspects of asbestos, none contain the encyclopedic, comprehensive coverage you will find here. Edited by leading authorities, with contributions from specialists and leaders in their respective fields, Asbestos: Risk Assessment, Epidemiology, and Health Effects provides a cross-disciplinary approach and an authoritative review of asbestos research. The breadth and depth of coverage spans history, pathology, epidemiology, as well as sampling, analysis, and regulatory issues. Following the path of asbestos from its natural sources to its effects at the cell, organism, and population levels, the volume covers testing methods, types of exposure, and the associated health effects. It provides a multi-disciplinary look at sampling methods, analysis, pathology, and regulations. The book explores differences in the detection levels achieved with various techniques applied to the various types of environmental and human samples. This includes comparisons of recommended and/or required sampling schemes and the parameters associated with the instruments used in each of the methods. Offering state-of-the-art data on asbestos exposure and the resultant development of disease, the content is styled so that the depth of coverage is sufficient for specialists and researchers but also useful for anyone having to deal with asbestos-related problems.

Recommended Books on Asbestos