Asbestos is a family of naturally occurring silicates which, when used in a variety of construction and manufacturing ways, provides significant heat-resistance. As such, it has historically been used for, among other things, building construction and shipbuilding. It is reported that the amphiboles amosite and crocidolite, and the serpentine fiber chrysotile, are the primary causes of asbestos-related disease.
Although asbestos has been vilified, asbestos’ unique properties and natural occurrence led to its use throughout history. It reportedly was used for lamp and candle wicks as long ago as 4000 BC, and between 3000 and 2000 BC Egyptian pharaohs were embalmed using asbestos cloth wrapping to better preserve the pharaoh. In the 1300s, Marco Polo visited an asbestos mine in China, where he identified asbestos as a stone and ended the myth that asbestos was the hair of a woolly lizard. In the 1700s, asbestos papers and boards were manufactured in Italy. From the mid-1800s, asbestos...
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References and Further Reading
Bolton, C., Richards, A., & Ebden, P. (2002). Asbestos-related disease. Hospital Medicine, 63(3), 148–151.
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Hammar, S. P., Henderson, D. W., Klebe, S., & Dodson, R. F. (2008). Neoplasms of the pleura. In J. F. Thomashefski (Ed.), Dail and Hammar’s pulmonary pathology (3rd ed., pp. 558–734). New York: Springer.
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Allen, T.C. (2018). Asbestos-Induced Pleural Disease. In: Allen, T.C., Suster, S. (eds) Pathology of the Pleura and Mediastinum. Encyclopedia of Pathology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66796-6_4294
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