this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2025
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I am once again reminding the world that the ancient Romans warned not to buy slaves from asbestos mines because of the health issues they had.
We have known for a very long time that asbestos was bad and we keep using it to this day.
At least we aren't using it to make easy clean tablecloths and napkins that only need to be thrown in a fire to clean...
TIL asbestos is a naturally-occurring substance (I always thought it was synthetic!)
Yeah, it's a crystal structure and it's really a shame that it causes so many health issues because it's kind of an amazing material otherwise. It's lightweight and strong enough to make bricks with but you can also make flexible fabric out of it, and it can hold up to really impressive amounts of heat. As the poster above said, it is still in use in some industrial applications because in some situations there is no effective alternative.
Of course the problem is that if you damage an asbestos brick or bend an asbestos fabric you get lots of tiny little asbestos fibers that come loose. My understanding is that the fibers are so small that they pierce cell walls and damage DNA strands, hence the cancer.
They're not small enough to directly damage DNA, they get trapped in your tissues and are impossible for your body to remove, and they cause inflammation and scarring. The long term inflammation and scarring is what increases cancer susceptibility
Here we go, found it in the Health Impacts article:
And here in MECHANISMS OF ASBESTOS-INDUCED CARCINOGENESIS
So not quite down to the DNA level, but basically chromosomes can get wrapped around asbestos fibers during cell division.
TIL, thank you!
Oh so like microplastics. Great :/
And asbestos is just one form of silica. Silica dust from many sources can cause serious lung problems, e.g. breathing in the dust from cutting granite countertops (which contain silica as quartz) or volcanic dust.
Heck just concrete dust will accumulate and cause chronic health issues. Something I hate knowing when I drive by a construction site and see a bunch of guys cutting foundations with saws, huge plumes of concrete dust, they're just breathing it unfiltered. But no one is playing up the health risks to these folks, and they aren't thinking about how bad it will be at 60 to be on oxygen or dead.
Wood dust also does this. In fact, any little soluble, hard particles of a certain shape and size can get stuck in your lungs and do damage there. They act in a biophysical and not in a biochemical way. Which is why, in several countries, you're required to wear PPE when handling such, or any, powders or dusts.
Yeah this sucked getting back into woodworking, they basically tell you now, if you can smell the sawdust and wood (my favorite part), you're in danger so get a mask on.
Makes one susceptible to pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
Forbidden floof
And it's been used pretty much forever... in pottery, in garments... Charlemagne had an asbestos shirt he'd throw in the fire to clean stains off in order to amaze his visitors.
I believe the risks of silicosis from silica were known since ancient times too, although they probably didn't have any solutions or alternatives for it historically. More recently, there was the Hawk's Nest tunnel disaster in the US during the 1930s, where around a 100 mostly black workers died as a result of silicosis developed from cutting and blowing up quartz without any sort of protective measures.
Then in the modern era, there was a ban implemented in Australia of construction using high silica "engineered" stone. You'd think given the known health risks of silica that this could have been predicted, although it's not as clear cut (heh) as the risks of asbestos, since at least part of the problem was construction workers not using preventative measures such as wet drilling and PPE. But you could see how that goes over when the workers are often vulnerable in some way, and do not feel comfortable saying no to their bosses.
There's also a problem where young workers often don't want to use uncomfortable and time consuming safety equipment. They're often far more receptive to the union demanding it than the employer or government ime, but it's similar to how people reacted to face masks during covid.
...have you heard the latest presidential executive order from the U nited S tates?...
... I picked a bad presidential term to stop smoking
...have some airplane! glue...
Sorry, I'm out of the loop
Did the orange idiot suggest to bring asbestos back?
That would play well with Russia, as the current biggest exporter of asbestos and would pretty much fit the picture of the idiots way of doing "business"
..quite so, this is a reversal of a previous EO since we can't seem to legislate anything...hold while i find a citation
Current Status of Asbestos Ban in the U.S. Overview of the Ban
In March 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a ban on the ongoing uses of chrysotile asbestos, the only type currently used in the U.S. This ban is part of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and aims to protect public health by eliminating exposure to this known carcinogen. wikipedia
https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/06/20/trump-asbestos-biden-epa/
questions? me, too...
Seems the current producers of chrysotile asbestos are Russia, Kazakhstan, China, and Brazil.
Or is there are also some mining/production in the USA?
...i cannot find a source
What did the Romans use asbestos for?
I found this:
I gave an example, fireplace cleaned napkins and tablecloths.
It was also used in bricks and pottery.
Slow assassinations.
Probably for its heat resistance