A Brief History of Asbestos | A Short Documentary | Fascinating Horror
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ค. 2024
- "On the 14th of March, 1924, an English textile worker named Nellie Kershaw passed away after several years of ill health..."
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CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Intro
00:47 - A Brief History of Asbestos
04:57 - The Dangers of Asbestos
07:04 - Asbestos Today
MUSIC:
► "Glass Pond" by Public Memory
► "Nocturnally" by Amulets
SOURCES:
► "History of asbestos related disease" by P Bartrip, published by Postgrad Medical Journal, February 2004. Available via: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
► "Asbestos Cover-Up" by Michelle Whitmer, published by Asbestos.com. Link: www.asbestos.com/featured-sto...
► "The Global Spread of Asbestos" by Arthur L Frank and TK Joshi, published by Annals of Global Health, August 2014. Available via: www.sciencedirect.com/science...
► "Asbestos in Scotland" by Thomas Gorman, Ronnie Johnston, Arthur McIvor and Andrew Watterson, published by the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, January 2012. Available via: web.archive.org/web/201708101...
#Documentary #History #TrueStories
I think it's an especially cruel fate that something so useful, easy to work with, AND naturally occurring is also so ridiculously dangerous.
No kidding, it went from a wonder substance that would speed economic development while theoretically saving many lives to a de-facto toxic substance that costs hundreds of billions to clean up, renders some natural sites potentially harmful, and is too expensive to even use responsibly except possibly in nuclear reactors.
Life sucks and then you die.
It had some really cool uses too. Like cremation blankets.
Asbestos isn’t as dangerous as you think. Sure breathing in asbestos dust all day long for years will most likely kill you prematurely, so will breathing in sand or rock dust. As long as you control the dust or wear a respirator when creating asbestos dust then it’s a perfectly safe substance to use. Just like lead and mercury the dangers are blown out of proportion. None of these things are dangerous unless you create a bunch of dust or fumes and breath them in, or eat them.
"If it sounds too good to be true..." (Cue the Tomorrowland song 'Miracles from Molecules' over footage of Thalidomide / Agent Orange birth defects / mesothelioma lungs)
I'm glad you mentioned Pliny and the Romans. It's amazing how many people don't appreciate this long history of suspicion over Asbestos.
it really is amazing
So you probably think about the Roman Empire often, huh? 😜😏
@@kayleighgroenendal8473 well played. 👏
Tell ya what! Didn’t know asbestos’s usage was that ancient! I learned a thing or two tonight!
I'm not sure if I actually believe that ancient people knew of the dangers of asbestos. While often stated, I've never heard anyone present an actual quote where an ancient person supposedly documented that there was a hazard, and it doesn't make a lot of sense to me that there would be only one source for the information if it was known by the ancient Romans (let alone one source that seemingly no one can track down).
There's also the fact that asbestos extraction in ancient times would have been much smaller-scale than industrial asbestos extraction. Asbestos was very clearly a rare and exotic material back then, to the point that a lot of people didn't even understand that it came from rocks (lots of people referred to it as "salamander wool", for example, or thought it was some sort of plant). This would mean that asbestos disease must have been quite rare in ancient times, and combined with the fact that asbestos disease has a long latency period and can easily be mistaken for many other diseases, it would have been difficult to link deaths to asbestos exposure at the time.
My father-in-law died of mesothelioma a few years back. He went from the best shape of his life to having a persistent cough to incapacitated to dead terrifyingly fast - even with catching it as early as possible and undergoing experimental treatments (including surgery on his lungs), he only made it a couple of years. His dad was a builder, and it's most likely the asbestos exposure was from dust brought home on his clothes. It would have been his 60th birthday today, but being the child of a builder in the 1960s and 1970s meant he didn't get there.
I would be surprised if there wasn't a family in Australia that didn't have a member experience asbestos induced mesothelioma. The stuff was everywhere unfortunately. Grandad was trucker in the 60s and 70s and would transport the stuff all the time and had a similar fate. He was a great man and managed to make it to 72. Condolences for your father mate.
I'm sorry for your and your families loss. It's so crazy and heartbreaking to hear how fast he went downhill.
Really only the last handful of years that safety culture has taken off it seems like. I’m happy to see it. My father had COPD that contributed to his decline from wood dust. I’m really glad it’s in the forefront of the minds of people that do the work these days. Even trying to get people to be more careful in some situations is like pulling teeth, but now it’s no longer thought of as some weakness to use PPE. Very very happy to see it. Even people that know they will face problems often used to not wear protection because they felt it weak or didn’t feel like they would be one of the people to get sick. I’m glad it’s now the thing to do and people not using it are looked at as being stupid.
The main take away on a story like this, which is all too common, is that business' and politicians who are in a position to profit are perfectly willing to murder men, women, and children. Always remember, never trust your government or business'. Many of them will kill you to make money.
I'm so sorry for your loss.
Asbestos is like the Midas touch of substances. A gift but a curse. So many amazing uses but so much damage.
Yep, its crazy how it seems some of the most useful materials the earth gives us, happen to be some of the most dangerous, and unusable due to the risks attached.
Almost like it should've been respected as a useful but deadly substance. With proper precautions it should be fine, but people cut any corner they can to be more lazy.
Laziness is a factor. A bigger one is money. It takes money to do things the right way and people will save that sht where ever and when ever they can.
For me, as an Australian, asbestos is inexorably tied to the James Hardie Corporation, which fought in court to deny its former workers compensation for the respiratory diseases that they contracted through their work with asbestos as recently as the mid 2000s...
My auntie's father-in-law worked for James Hardie and died of mesothelioma. He was part of the legal battle for compensation even before he got sick himself, but by the time he got the money he was almost dead. It still didn't even begin to make up for the suffering he and his family went through 😔James Hardie are so evil for doing what they did, they knew that their products were dangerous and decided that profit was more important than lives. I reckon we'll see this happen again with engineered stone giving people silicosis.
Is that CSR?
Different company but same class action.@@sadmermaid
That recently!? Wow, just wow.
In my part of the United States, it was Armstrong. They made flooring and ceiling tiles and were a HUGE company back in the day. I believe the same thing happened with them fighting in court, around the same era, and I remember hearing news stories about it. :(
Oh man I have a story! When I was 19 I worked at a Petsmart and I had an elderly woman that came in regularly. She was always so sweet and we bonded because we both had little old dogs named “Muffin”. After about a year of seeing her come in to shop and getting to know each other, one day she comes in and just drops a bombshell; she tells me that she had been diagnosed with mesothelioma, and her daughter would be taking care of her Muffin from now on. She basically said she didn’t have very much longer.. i didn’t even know what to say so I just hugged her and we wept. It was so incredibly sad 😞I never saw her again after that day, but I sure do remember her. My Muffin doggy passed peacefully about 10 years ago now and I hope that our little dogs are in heaven playing together.
❤ Amen 🙏
That's a sad story, A lot of the "Greatest" and "Silent" generations were exposed to it without even knowing the risks. The brave men and women who were in the Navy in ww1, ww2, and Korea were exposed to that nasty stuff. Though their sacrifices in working with Abestos has lead into innovation into making alternatives of Abestos. Now we have heat proof ceramics in the steel industry, which once had abestos lined kilns. (My first stepdad worked in such of a Mill, the EPA had to come in to oversee the demolition of the mill due to the abestos, lead, and other toxins that was all over the plant grounds The heat took a toll on the man as he died from bone cancer. Though i think its Kharmic retribution as he was a real jerk to me and my male relatives, we believed he was a closet pedophile.)
It's a horrible way to go.
God damn, man.
You're a good person.
I am a the field supervisor for an asbestos abatement company operating in Canada. I have over 20 years experience, this is probably the most informative collection of information I have ever found on one place.
A lot of the training materials we are provided are very dated and poorly produced.
Congratulations on a job well done.
My dad died from mesothelioma in 2018, he was a triathlete and very fit and active until about 2 years before he died. He was a maintenance electrician and got exposed because of poor health and safety regs. This stuff was used in artex in thousands if not millions of houses. Be careful in your own home.
Asbestos stole my father in 2015. I’m sorry for your loss.
My sympathies
@@lgannawaMy deepest sympathy
my dad got throat cancer in 2020. he never smoked a cigarette...
This video is like 20 years too late lol
For reference, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were some of the last buildings completed with asbestos in NYC. And by completed, they mean stuffed with asbestos- right down to the vinyl floor tiles. That adds an extra layer of horror to the giant dust clouds that took over lower Manhattan on 9/11/01.
Also, the superliner SS United States was finished with copious amounts of asbestos to the point the ship was effectively fireproof.
Lastly, I used to work in a mall built in the 70s. I’d typically go to Sears at least once a week to check out the sales… until the store closed and was roped off for asbestos abatement.
3000 people died on 9/11 as of 2022, 3400 have died since from cancer with 20,000 first responders alone thought to be affected.
@@kekistanimememan170343 firefighters that have responded have since died, equaling the amount who died in the attacks itself
I’ll be celebrating 20 yrs of survival with mesothelioma, in July 2024. Fibers can be ingested, causing other forms of mesothelioma. It can take 25 years to present in a person. I was 24 when it was discovered in my case. Cheap crayons and makeup can contain asbestos, even in the countries that have banned asbestos…
Wow, really? I did not know that! I’ll make sure to avoid cheap crayons and make up..thank you for that info. Congratulations on your 20 years! 🎉💐
Tbt to when J&J sold talc they knew was contaminated with asbestos to hundreds of millions of women and parents and we all just kinda… let it go?
Honestly, no one knows when exactly they actually fixed it. Most of the information about the scandal was declared “confidential” by a crooked judge. I went to a high school in Ohio when the LeBron baby powder thing at kickoffs was popular, so I was in dozens of dense clouds of the stuff. I really hope that by 2011, it had been fixed.
I'm glad you're a survivor! Wow!
Hello, that is very impressive and I am glad you have greatly overcome the odds. I was diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma almost a year ago. I have undergone chemo, Cytoreductive surgery and HIPEC. As of right now, I am at a C1, no evidence to the human eye. Just had another CT scan it looks clear. I went down to 90 pounds over the summer and had terrible ascites. I am now back to my normal weight and healthy. I believe I can live a longer life with treatment and hopefully one day have kids and a wife. I remain faithful seeing stories like yours. I am 21 years old. Thank you
How did you find out?
As someone from Quebec, where there is a town called Asbestos (the largest mine in Canada for it), i can confirm the dark legacy left behind by its use.
There was a town named Asbestos. Even after the mine was shut down, they didn't want to change their name because in Quebec, Asbestos doesn't mean anything. The French word is "Amiante".
After the mine closed, the mayor went on a business trip to the US to try and get contracts for the other (non-asbestos related) businesses in town. No one even wanted to touch their business cards, since asbestos had such a negative connotation. The town voted and changed their name to Val-des-Sources.
Russia has a city named Asbest, which is an open pit mine for it as well. Similar legacy.
I hate Kabek. JK, Letterkenny joke. Sounds like time for a name change, though. That'd be like living in Carcinogen, Wherever.
Tom Scott has an interesting video on this!
I was on a tasking with the CAF and a warrant from asbestos, qc told me there had never been a case of mesothelioma there. I wonder if true 🤔
My step dad served in the navy in the 70s. He died of mesothelioma in 2017. It was so hard watching his die in slow motion. As the cancer progressed his lungs stopped working. Towards the end he had 1/4 of his lung working. You could even see the part of his chest moving where the only part of his lung was functioning.
That is so sad. :(
That doesn’t make sense.
Did the government help with his medical issues? Did the government give his family any compensation? I'm so sorry for your loss.
A great uncle of mine served aboard the carrier Enterprise in the Pacific theatre and was on duty in the engine room when a kamikaze crashed through the first elevator. The lights went out and pipes with asbestos sealant were bursting all around him. He would eventually die of lung cancer. He lived into his 70s but he never smoked.
the japs got him eventually
Shipbuilding in the first half of the twentieth century dealt with a great deal of asbestos.
Friend’s mother died of mesothelioma, she was a homemaker with 4 children. Her husband was in the navy, they attributed her asbestos fibre exposure to her laundering and ironing etc of his uniform clothes as a secondary exposure to his time on ships etc.
I think you have to breathe it in over long periods of time , a one time thing should not kill you .
@@Crashed131963you are correct. A one time exposure or even a few breif exposures throughout a lifetime normally wouldnt result in a death cuased by the asbestos.
It takes repeated exposure(and inhalation) for it to damage your lungs enough to kill you, though im not sure about the relationship between the number of exposures(inhalation) and mesothelioma.
I think many of these claims are due to confirmation bias. Sort of "died from a lung issue? Well, i can connect them to someone who was in contact with asbestos. Must have been asbestos through that person that killed them" type of situations.
You are such a phenomenal narrator.
I second that!
Best comment. Every video produced blows mind.
I fully agree! Every video on this channel is just beyond perfect! Respectful, informative, fascinating, extremely well presented - absolutely brilliant!
Agreed.
ikr, I have seen several other similar channels, but here I find the clearest narative, both in voice and information given.
In primary school in the 1980s we had a "nature table" in the classroom. This had all sorts of rocks, plants, bird eggs etc. sort of a show and tell table. I clearly remember there was a big lump of raw asbestos, which the teacher explained had heat resistant properties. I remember all us kids touching the fibres and being fascinated with it. Not knowing the dangers back then as a kid, looking back on it now I'm horrified that the teacher allowed this, since by that decade the dangers of it were well known.
My understanding is that the danger from asbestos in that size, form and quantity is extremely minimal; I'm not saying I agree with her decision to allow it, only that there probably aren't going to be any ill effects down the line for any of the kids, who were probably in more danger from tiny amounts of asbestos dust remaining after previous construction and renovations (including necessary asbestos removal) of the school building.
1980? Not in the USA.
I remember we had a sample of the blue asbestos in its natural form when I was at intermediate school in the early 90s. But the main hazard came from vandalism of, and alterations to, the school buildings, which were all clad with asbestos sheets made by James Hardie.
Also, there was little to no effort made to contain the dust, or use PPE when handling/removing the cement sheets until law changes in 2015 that made it mandatory to use licensed professionals for removal of any area over 10 square metres. The penalties for non compliance are severe. This is in New Zealand.
@mark77193 I'll be damned. Whoa we so wouldn't do that in Massachusetts. I wonder if that's because so many houses had asbestos shingle and what we call "snowmen" boilers wrapped in asbestos
Long time watcher, first time caller. This hits home for me. My dad (still alive 🙏) worked with asbestos in a factory that used it in making fireproof boards for John Manville. He worked with it for 16 years before they stopped using it. I take every day I have with him still healthy at almost 72 as a gift. I take nothing for granted.
Mesothelioma is no joke, my grandfather’s brother died from it from cutting asbestos sheets for fencing. My grandfather did try e same but never got it, he died of heart failure at 88, his brother at 54.
What kind of exposure do you mean he tried it? Like tried it once or tried the job for a few weeks lol. Just curious because I work with asbestos' cousin, ceramic fibers, ceramic fabric hight temp insulation
@@user-jb9nb7gz7o his brother cut asbestos sheets for over a decade, my grandfather did it for a few years but mainly worked as a rail inspector, which often involved checking the brake blocks which had asbestos in them and regularly got dust in the air. He did that work for over 40 years and somehow got lucky. Even the autopsy found very little asbestos fibres in his lungs, not enough to cause serious damage.
Spent my last three years in Germany. Between Abestosos and Lead in the older building it amazed me how common it still was as an issue. They have done wonders with sealing off the containment but it makes you realize we will be dealing with this issues for generations.
Same in the Netherlands. I work for an environmental government service that keeps track of pollution and dangerous materials in buildings and soil. Asbestos is still everywhere, and one of the main pollutions people keep careful track of. It's not uncommon to renovate a building and find loads of asbestos in places they didn't even expect. It's clean-up is a massive industry in and of itself.
not sure about lead but in Australia lots of houses still contain asbestos wallboards or roof tiles
@@madkills10Pretty much everything built before 1960 has asbestos something in it. Here in North America well...everything, despite the dangers its still an incredible material. If the dust/fiber issue could be solved you'd see explosive growth in it.
When I mean everything, here's the stuff I can remember and what my grandparents and great grandparents passed along. Minus the stuff in the video. Starting with just insulation: pipes, plates, cutting boards, counter tops, gloves, socks, electrical wire, building insulation, high-heat protection for furnaces, boilers, large blowers for barns/factories, etc. Stucco, floor tiles, carpets, wallpaper. Autobody work for heat protection while using lead as body filler(before bondo). All over farm equipment, factories, etc. On and on and on...
It's everywhere.
The downpipe from my bathroom going down into the drains below my backyard is an asbestos pipe for whatever reason.
In New Zealand and Australia its pretty much everything built/renovated from the 1910s till the early 90s. Sometimes later, I found asbestos cement sheets in a house built in 1996. Was the builder's own home, so would have been new old stock that he'd had in the shed for years. @@elilla331
Just lost my father, who worked many years at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. For seven of those years he worked with asbestos to coat the pipes inside the ships and subs. During the last chapter of his life his lungs were unable to exchange gases properly. He could absorb oxygen, but was having trouble shedding CO2, so there was a steady build-up of CO2 in his blood, slowly causing more and more brain damage and cognitive decline. He’s at peace now, thankfully.
hey im so sorry for ur father😣 he is in heaven! mine dad to….😣how old was he bro…
I had an ADHD fixation on asbestos history for a while, but I had no idea about the slaves in Rome!
Also, fun fact: Remember that scene in Wizard of Oz where Glinda wakes up Dorothy with the snow? The snow was asbestos! Asbestos was also sold as fake snow for Christmas decorations in retail stores in the 30s and 40s.
Despite regulatory efforts to ban all asbestos products, the brake pad and shoe industry still uses it in some components. The United States Environmental Protection Agency conducted a study in brake repair shops across the nation. The EPA determined shop dust contained an average of 33% asbestos fibers.
It is still in use as a fire proofing in some specific high temperature applications
@@shawnmiller4781 That actually sounds like a reasonable and responsible use for it, kind of like highly radioactive materials are used for some advanced hospital equipment.
Shoes, on the other hand....
It's eye-opening how long the danger of asbestos has been known, but not widely enough. I remember it was only in the late 1970's that it became common knowledge. At school until then, we happily used crumbling asbestos mats in the science lab!
As a result of Australian production of asbestos being banned in 2003, this led to the former asbestos mining town of Wittenoom in Western Australia being closed down and taken off the map, the town has all but disappeared and become crown land. Good job.
Not sure i would want to live there myself. Feels a bit like living in one of the toxic towns covered earlier on the channel.
@@kurotsuki7427 the last person who was there was evicted near the end of 2022 I think there is a documentary on it from 2019 on TH-cam 🤔
@informationgatherer4970 interesting, ive been collecting videos to listen to while doing chores. Thanks for the info, ill look it up!
There was a song written about the mine that Wittenoom supported: "Blue Sky Mine" by Midnight Oil.
@@stevenstice6683 ohhhhh song!
Asbestos does have a fascinating history behind it. The more we look into this matter, the more credible information we get from it. Pretty amazing, I must say.
You talk like chatgpt
I only recently discovered this channel, and I must say I'm extremely impressed with the range of topics, the quality of research, the production quality, and the clear and concise narration. The episode length is also excellent. A job well done by the entire team behind the channel. Cheers.
This is one of my favorite channels! His calm narration and choice to stick to the facts make it so much better.
Welcome. The Nutty Putty Cave episode is my favorite.
It’s amazing how something that was seen as a positive had a lot of negative consequences if exposed to it.
Oh yeah that almost never happens on this channel all the time
Not making fun of you, commiserating how the march of progress, careless or otherwise, has killed so many unsuspecting millions throughout history
I agree OP, fire is one bitch we have to live with.
Oh, what's that, you weren't talking about fire?
How weird...
Just like lead.
@@arturoaguilar6002 Or radium.
I never knew that asbestos was used in ancient times. I had always known it was dangerous due to members of my family being exposed to it and later dying from health issues relating to it. Another excellent video from FH
they died young 😔?
If you or a loved one was diagnosed with Mesothelioma you may be entitled to financial compensation
How do I look into this
@@leonel1717look it up on the internet. Try searching “Mesothelioma class action lawsuit”. Or “Mesothelioma settlement” maybe “Mesothelioma representation”
I was looking for this comment
Comments you can hear
Now sing it to the tune of the can can
My town got hit by a massive tornado a couple of years ago, and it did major damage to one of the oldest school buildings in the county. Repairs got put on a lengthy hiatus due to the discovery of asbestos insulation. There was even talk about scrapping repairs and just demolishing the building due to a) the extent of the damage, and b) the asbestos.
My Uncle Alan was a heart and lung specialist at Bradford Infirmary, who was interviewed about his role helping victims of "asbestosis". There is a documentary somewhere on TH-cam where he appears alongside a woman mill-worker who was tragically not long for this world. Obviously that being an area with mills that wove asbestos fireproof fabrics he saw a great many of these people. Sadly he was unable to do much to help them.
Alice: A fight for life
I just watched both parts of her documentary. I felt so bad for her.
Yes, really tragic. Makes me so angry. @@InteriorDesignStudent
I am duty-bound to mention the Kuruman (Asbestos) Hills in South Africa and the discovery of mesothelioma in Kimberley, SA, which was covered up by the South African government. The Hills today still have tailings and unhealthy air percentages.
🇿🇦
When I was a 10 y/o, my house was under construction, and at one point the workers left this big pillar of huge glass insulation mattresses stacked on top of each other, right under an _unfinished_ balcony. So a friend of mine dared me to _jump_ off the balcony and over them, and to convonce me, he went in first. Nothing happened to him and he got off fine, so here I go and jumped too. Best fun of my short live so far, then.
That was, until my parents caught me and got mad at me and the other kid, but that was nothing to what was coming next a few hours later at bathtime. My entire body got redspots all over and my body swole a bit, rubbing my skin _hurt so much_ with a kind of pain that is just minimally bearable, but one where there was no end in sight for it. From my perspective, it was _eternal._ Spent the next three hours under very warm water in the bathub, scrubbing soap and hair conditioner all over my body every half hour so. I hated glass insulation ever since, even tho I recognize the blessing it represents in insulation.
I can't imagine then, how much worse asbestos is in comparison :'(
The crazy thing is, asbestos is nothing like fiberglass (like what you jumped into) It’s very soft and smooth, almost silky. You can handle it all day and have no idea that it could ever be a bad thing. I feel for you. I too, had a similar fiberglass experience as a child and went through the agony of having it “removed”. They say pantyhose gets it off your skin, but I sure didn’t know that back then.
Taking a hot bath was the absolute worst thing you could have done. It opens the pores up for the glass to stick in. Just FYI, cold water seals up the pores somewhat while you use soap to wash the glass off gently. I used to put up the insulation sheets on the walmart distro centers in florida. The new guys that came would always have a good laugh b/c I would cover myself in baby powder from head to toe every morning for work. And keep throwing it on in the florida heat. Takes about two days before the new guys come around and wanna borrow some baby powder.
And ya, later on Tyvek suits would get more popular. But smaller construction outfits would rarely give a crew of mostly mexicans any surplus equipment. You got a harness, belt, pouch, and spud. And had to pay that back out of your check later. I'm not sure tyvek suits would be viable anyway.
My Dad used to build and renovate hospitals so I was educated about asbestos from an early age. Scary stuff. I think this is an excellent overview however I think you should have spent more time on the deliberate misinformation campaign by people making large profits from the asbestos industry (cf. tobacco).
Same with talc/talcum powder. Johnson & Johnson were sued a few years back & lost their case. They knew for decades that it was a known carcinogenic, yet they continued to sell it. Its linked to ovarian & breast cancers. I did an essay in uni & have never touched it since (I didn't like it before!), so when I heard j&j were sued years after, I was pleased they'd lost.
I thought that too. The legal battle for an asbestos manufacturer, James Hardie, in Australia went on for years, until they were finally forced to pay compensation to victims,. We're also having similar battles over engineered stone, because so many people who have been exposed to the dust are dying of silicosis.
@@drinkupmeheartysyoho the reason talc is an issue is (if i remember correctly) that it contains some amount of asbestos, right?
@@jimbailey3705 Yes.
@@jimbailey3705Yes. Talcum powder is harmless, the issie was that J&J had poor quality control and failed to eliminate enough of the asbestos.
My dads best mate AND the guys poor wife BOTH died due to asbestos! My dads mate worked on the Tube/London Underground and was exposed to the Tube train brake dust. He then came home, overalls still covered in the deadly dust, where his poor wife was exposed by putting the overalls in the wash! They both died leaving their poor son an orphan in his teens! So incredibly sad and so disgusting that it even happened (they both died in the 90s)
Asbestos was used to make the snow in the Wizard of Oz movie in 1939.
That's right, I remember reading it somewhere. Amazing
this is insane. did we just abandon every other material?
FH just wanted to remind us that we don't even need to leave the comfort and safety of our homes to suffer a horrific, lingering, excruciating demise! #mesothelioma
Oh please. What he failed to mention is that even if your home is full of asbestos, it's not a hazard unless you disturb it.
@@christinewatson1989 Yeah, my dad re-did the floor in the kitchen of their house where we all grew up. There was asbestos underneath, but it was the really dense stuff, not dusty. So he CAREFULLY rolled it up and took it to the hazardous-waste place.
Before then, the floor had been redone maybe 3 times in the house's "lifespan" and it was never ripped out before -- they just kept putting new linoleum on top. The kitchen floor was raised about 1/2" from the dining room, with a covered "lip" to avoid trips. I never remember seeing it flat like it is now!
@@christinewatson1989 He did mention it, at 8:41, citing insulation as an example
My aunt died of mesothelioma two months before her 50th birthday. She was exposed in her home as a child. (In her early years, the family lived in company housing.) My cousins were 20 and 16 years old when she died.
My sympathies
My spouse has worked on autos 55 years, hoods had asbestos, and he did brake work daily. No ill effects. Amazing.
Good ventilation helps. I assume he doesn't smoke. The chances of mesothelioma go up dramatically when people are exposed to both cigarette smoke and asbestos fibers.
What perfect timing. A week ago a historical blimp hangar near where I live burned down (Hangar Fire, Tustin, Ca) and it was built during the 1940s with a large amount of asbestos and heavy metal paint. The convective column carried whole chunks of asbestos insulation and heavy metal fumes and scattered them across the area surrounding the hangar (residential area lots of family dwellings) while the agencies involved denied or downplayed the severity. I think in the future it could be a great topic for your channel.
I live in a nearby area and there was surprisingly little done about it. People were standing around near it too.
There are 6 types of Asbestos and they're all different colors.
Personally I've always found the Blue one and the Green one to be the scariest ones as they're so beautiful in color you may accidentally pick them up thinking they were semi-precious or precious stones, especially the Blue one, it has kind of a star burst pattern of blues coming from the center.
It sounds pretty
Absolutely sad that such an incredibly useful material just so happens to be insidiously deadly 😢
Once upon a time in the comics, you had "Human Torch" Johnny Storm touting the fireproof benefits of asbestos from a specially made "Asbestos Room", made for him by Mr. Fantastic so he doesn't burn the place down if he accidentally flames on in his sleep. The original android Human Torch fought a villain named "Asbestos Lady", and Johnny Storm fought a villain named "Asbestos Man". Asbestos Man did appear in a modern comic, depicted as an older man still in costume carting around an oxygen tank, 'cause, y'now, asbestos.
There was a recent Flash story arc like that. Heat Wave is diagnosed with cancer because his Silver Age costume was asbestos.
Hey I’m never this early to the party, cheers 🎉
Welcome!
An asbestos party 🥳
When I was in High School (US in the early 90's) they were doing asbestos removal from the school not only during the school year, but also during the school day, just down the hall from where we were having classes. Even at the time I thought that this was incredibly dumb and reckless, and that a few pieces of plastic haphazardly taped up between us and where they were working was nowhere sufficient protection. Absolutely crazy. And as a little side comment - yes, I have had lung issues (2 surgeries), but nothing that could be definitively linked to any potential asbestos exposure when I was in school. Thanks for the videos! You cover so many interesting situations in a very respectful manner.
Check out the song 'Blue Sky Mine' by Midnight Oil, which is specifically about the mining of Blue Asbestos in Australia
This song kept playing in the back of my head this whole video
I like that song well enough, but never listened to it closely enough to know that. Neat.
Asbestos was also banned in South Africa in 2008, I remember when I was in school, around 2012 or so the school decided to remodel an old building on the property. It was built in the 70s and so contained asbestos, half the school grounds were partitioned off and I remember us all wondering why the hell there were men in suits and a huge zone of off-limits.
I'm from a city named Thetford Mines, Québec. My great grandfather worked all his life for Bell Asbestos Mines ltd as his father and as my grandfather. There wasn't such thing as air filters back then ! My grandfather still has asbestos rocks as decoration in the living room, he's proud of his heritage.
06:50 Ah, but of course greed played a part even in this despite the fact that phasing out the use of "nature's mineral miracle" and minimizing its use around people would have already taken a while.
Always look forward to Tuesday morning when FH drops a video
My mother, a french teacher of over 30 years in the North West of England, died of Mesothelioma in 2017 so I hugely appreciate you covering this topic. More people need to know how many teachers in the UK are dying just as a result of accidentally being exposed to asbestos in their career. If teachers die of it... Students will also be at risk. I wish more people knew about how little our government are willing to do about it. They have paid for the removal of asbestos from palaces and parliament buildings... But not hospitals or schools or prisons 🙄
In the U.S., at least in California, asbestos in schools is a big deal. Every time voters are asked to pass a bond measure to finance education, it seems that earthquake strengthening is near the top of the list, and also asbestos remediation. You would think they'd have fixed all the schools by now.
I’m an asbestos surveyor in the UK, other surveyors in my company have found schools using bunsen burner heat mats made of Asbestos cement only a couple years ago.
My uncle died of mesothelioma. He worked briefly in the mines in Nova Scotia. Canada closed its last two mines in 2011 and completely banned it in 2018.
do u remember how old was he 😔?
I didn't know asbestos was a natural product, I thought it was man made. This was, indeed, fascinating.
Asbestos and talc are minerals that form close to one another. It's difficult and expensive to try and separate them. Since the early '70s It's alleged that Johnson & Johnson knew that its talcum powder products contained Asbestos, but chose to keep it quiet. Many people, mostly women, began to develop asbestos related illnesses and cancers as a result.
@@daniellapan232Exactly, it is so dangerous.
My old house in northern Australia had asbestos in the walls, it was harmless then until a cyclone came and pulled our front wall away, exposing it. In a way, we were lucky it was there because we became a priority for the insurance company to fix our house quickly! But I was a headache because three of us were already asthmatics…
😬 that's lucky
My tired brain first read the title as ‘assholes’ not ‘asbestos’ lol I need sleep.
A Brief History of Assholes looooool!
It looks really cool and soft. It's too bad it's so harmful if it gets into our lungs. Our house in Australia is mostly made of it but I didn't realise it was so soft and could make cloth from it
One thing he didn't mention is asbestos was used as one of the first types of cigarette filters. The amount of cancer people were getting back then is absurd.
Kent Micronite
It was also in the fake snow people sprayed on Christmas trees and around windows.
It should be noted that mesothelioma from asbestos is actually rare. But when combined with smoking the chances increase dramatically.
Using it in cigarettes was like adding bullets to the cylinder while playing Russian roulette.
@@christopherconard2831 Yup, the fake snow in Wizard Of Oz was asbestos. If you google images of it you'll see they are completely covered.
That first shot of the floating dust in the intro, haunting
My mom's cat tended to scratch at a wall textured with the stuff. Horrible irony is, when I was looking in close to determine if it was asbestos, the cat scratched at it, and I got a lung full.
Annoying. My neighbours have a cat that shits in my backyard. Also not very pleasant. Not life threating compared to your situation of course, but yeah, cats…
Until today, all I knew about asbestos was it was fireproof and lethal if inhaled. I thought it was a man-made fibre
Same.
My brain is still having trouble seeing something flexible as a mineral.
Ut's basically a stone that comes in fibers.
the deadliest pet rock, irresistably fluffy
Thanks for the interesting video. I live in a town that was "built on Asbestos" - back in the day, it was the main industry. There is a former factory here as well as a giant hill on the edge of town that is the remains of the asbestos piles (covered over in grass so as to not break down into dust and cause more of a health risk). The older locals talk about how they used to go sledding on "the white hill" (before it was covered over in grass and people realized it was dangerous).
Reliably good channel. 👍
I was baffled why people would keep using a product that has been known to kill for nearly a century (I didn't know about the Romans), until there was a fire in the circuit panel of a flat I was renting. I didn't even know there'd been a fire - I only knew something was wrong because the hot water was cold. The electrician opened the panel's lid and the entire area around the hot water system's fuse was charred black and the fuse itself a melted wreck, but the asbestos panel did such a good job of containing the fire that it didn't even reach the other fuses on the panel or the back of the panel itself! Damn useful stuff.
Then I panicked because the electrician decided to drill through the asbestos panel without any PPE and with me nearby, and the other reason why people keep using asbestos stuff was made clear to me. Sheer boneheaded, short-sighted stupidity. Sigh.
I am glad you mentioned the part about asbestos being OK if left undisturbed. Lots of folks think that anything in the world made with asbestos is going to kill them instantly. Not trying to undermine it's dangerous qualities, but it is best to have the full picture.
I know I have been exposed to vermiculite insulation in my work in home remodeling. In fact I have some in my own home. Most of what we see here in the Pacific Northwest came from the Libby, Montana vermiculite mines. Nearly that entire town was saturated with asbestos/vermiculite from the W.R.race mining company. The World Trade center in New York was built with nearly a million pounds of the stuff in the walls and ceilings. Libby and Troy, Montana are still Superfund sites.
My family is from Peru, and my grandfather talked about an event that happened in 1964. Can you make a video about the deadlist crush of football history, el Estadio Nacional Disaster and football riot? Also it would be nice if there was a spanish version. Its hard for my parents or grandparents to understand english.
Been a fan for years myself! Thank you for posting such good videos and now a good one on Asbestos.
I have been exposed to asbestos dust due to a contractors laziness/negligence. They removed pipes covered in asbestos but didn't clean the dust from the cutting of them. There were 40-50 piles of dust all over the attic. As I climbed in I put my hands in piles either side of the hatch. Also my house has asbestos soffits.
In Canada it was used in the filters of cigarettes. That's a doozie of bad things you inhale.
Smoker's lungs back then didn't have a chance. Not that they do now, but putting asbestos up to your lips and directly inhaling it is another level.
Kent with the Micronite Filter™
Mesothelioma killed my beloved Father in Law , he was a wonderful loving man and was more of a father to me than my own father , he died in agony. He was a Carpenter and it was more than likely the fibro that contained the asbestos . There does not go a day that I don't think about this wonderful man who was murdered by asbestos
An exceptional video, asbestosis and mesothelioma are indeed terrifying illnesses. My heart goes out to all those that have suffered, those that are struggling with it now and those yet to be diagnosed.
In my city in the early 1990s, there was a big to-do about asbestos in schools, and efforts to remove it. While adults were getter rid of the stuff in my school, we were bussed to a separate, presumably safer school. There was a split schedule to handle the influx of new students and teachers.
I distinctly remember a loose tile in my elementary school in the 90s. No one touched it, except for the children who kicked it and were then quickly scolded. At the end of the year, the hallway was sealed off and the flooring removed and replaced. The adults knew, just by the color of the linoleum, that the floor was asbestos.
This is fascinating, I had no idea asbestos had been in use for so long, for some reason I always thought it was like radium, fairly new and thought to be a miracle substance used for everything!
My grandfather with lead. My father with asbestos. Me with microplastics 💀
Excellent presentation, as always, FH. I am quite surprised about the continued use of asbestos here in the US: I thought it had been banned since the 80s!
It mostly has been. The problem is; An outright “Ban” creates all sorts of problems.
You see, if they actually ban it, then tens of thousands of public schools, tenements, municipal buildings, homes, businesses, etc would have to be evacuated, condemned and either remediated or demolished.
Now, banning the mining and SEVERELY limiting the manufacturing of products made out of Asbestos means that they can slowly (and affordably) remove from our buildings and overall lives.
Interesting fact: one of the reasons the twin towers fell so quickly on September 11 is that the majority of the Asbestos foam insulation that had been sprayed on the metal I-beams during the original construction had been removed. It was never replaced, as there was no comparable product at the time.
Unfortunately, quite a lot of Asbestos remained in areas that were much harder to reach, and this is one of the major reasons so many of the first responders, people who were there that terrible day, and the clean-up workers are getting sick and dying. Many are being diagnosed with Mesothelioma. Let’s all take a moment of silence to think of them. None of them deserved what happened to them….
Thank you for this very informative video. Asbestos is in our local news currently due to the tragic fire of a huge wooden blimp hangar that was built at the start of World War II. This fire and the asbestos it released is going to require a massive cleanup.
This one was actually very interesting and contained a lot of information I didn't know. Very good job on the research for it!
Great job this one was very interesting. I wasn’t even aware it was used so far back. Quite the fascinating material.
It's shocking to hear that 1/4 of a million people are dying from asbestos related issues even now! I mean, with radium at least they figured it out and discontinued the way it was used and manufactured. Asbestos is much older and is far more insidious it seems ! Interesting video! ❤
Asbestos is abundant and is in a state of constant natural exposure by the elements in some places, in some areas around Las Vegas for example you can have air samples of the outdoor air coming back above the Permissible Exposure Limits of Asbestos workers in the act of disturbing it in a confined environment during removal, it's just there naturally in the dirt and rocks just waiting to be kicked up by a gust of the wind or by the actions of people, digging to build a road for example, whether we're using it industrially or not it will always present a danger to people in some areas of the world, radium on the other hand isn't naturally found in a concentration that would be dangerous to people like asbestos fibers can be, that makes it a lot easier to limit exposure to people through simple legislation and regulation, asbestos is a tougher problem to tackle.
Well and it's everywhere in construction and auto industry uses it today. Old construction is rife with it.
One of my favorite horror movies is Session 9, about a crew of asbestos removers working in an abandoned mental hospital. Definitely worth a watch.
Wow!! Excellent video. I had no idea just how bad the problem was. Thanks for the education!
We just learned that the water pipes outside our house are made of comcrete mixed with asbestos, which means for the entire time I've lived in that house (20 years) we've been using water running through asbestos. I just kinda have to hope the pipes never get damaged... although they are replacing them this month. Hopefully taking necessary precautions
dont worry
Breathing asbestos is bad. But nobody said anything about drinking it! The lead in old metal pipes, though, is known to be a problem.
I’ve always heard of the dangers of asbestos but never really understood it. I’m glad a youtuber I’ve been following for years covered it❤
Omg I've been watching a bunch of videos about asbestos and now you upload one too?
Thanks! 🎉
Brilliant very well researched as usual. 🎉🎉🎉🎉
This being one of my favorite channels - I very much want to give a boost to Fascinating Horror’s other channel, “Kristian Crow” where they read short stories aloud, some of my favorites too - from Ambrose Bierce to Charlotte Gilman Perkins’ The Yellow Wallpaper, mostly short stories of the perfect length, neither too long or too short. While the relation of the two aren’t noted in FH’s description or channels on the about page, they are on his other channel. If you like Fascinating Horror’s narration, his choices and readings are excellent. So FH has 2 of my favorite channels in separate categories. I think it’s just wonderful.
Thanks for the shout out, that sounds like something I'd be interested in so I'll have to check it out!
It's disturbingly amazing how useful asbestos is while being so destructive.... I'm sorry to all those who have suffered from exposure or lost loved ones due to it
Honestly if you really think about it, Asbestos may have saved as many lives as it has taken, maybe even more, it's hard to quantify an exact number for that, but think about all the situations where an Asbestos containing material may have gave someone in a fire precious more time to act or escape than they would have without the asbestos, or all the fires in buildings and ships that were outright prevented from developing or spreading in the first place because of Asbestos containing materials, like I said it's something that can't really be accurately quantified but I'd be willing to bet it happens all the time still, and like he said in the video only the people working closely with the asbestos in a manner that generates airborne dust, for many years, were the majority of people being seriously harmed, thousands of deaths a year is not a huge number in the bigger scheme of things, so it could be the case that thousands each year are also saved by the remaining asbestos in buildings and ships. It's good we stopped using it and we shouldn't go back to using it, but it's really neither purely destructive or protective, it's somewhere in the middle.
So cool to see you do a video that's just about A Thing. I love learning about things! Incidences are cool but don't always allow such an overview of an issue at large, and Asbestos is just such a big thing that we take for granted people know about. I remember my elementary/primary schools having asbestos labeling, and knowing it was bad, but never being told what it was or what it did!
Perfect video to start my birthday 🎈🎂
It's always interesting to learn about this stuff
Another great and educational video. I hope everyone is subscribing to and supporting your channel - you are right up there with the best on TH-cam! Thanks.
Thanks for posting.
Super informative! Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it!
From a geologist perspective it would've been neat to mention that while colloquially "asbestos" refers to a specific material, the name itself is a conglomerating term for many minerals that are united in their fibrous form. Many minerals are "asbestos" with diverse consequences besides the physical hazard, so for example one of the most toxic minerals on earth Chalcanthite is holding that title because it is "asbestos" and also easily dissolves in your lungs, leading to heavy metal poisoning.
Thanks for adding this! I was going to mention this if no one else had :) Another thing, if those minerals are not in their fibrous form (“asbestiform”), they are not considered asbestos.
(That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re safe, though, as I learned once in undergrad when I got a million tiny splinters from picking up a non-asbestiform tremolite sample 😅)
My dad died of mezothelioma. He was also navy like some of the others that have posted here. He was in fantastic health, than just out of the blue started going downhill. He went for test and the doctor said he had about 6 months left to live. He lasted 2 and a half.
I'm sorry to hear that. Have you received any compensation from the government
hey mine dad to😔😔 they are i. heaven how old was your dad…
This was so well done!
I am currently working on my university thesis and my subject is asbestos related mesothelioma and how it effects workers. I was delighted to find this little documentary. Thank you.
It's a shame asbestos doesn't agree with the body, it's so useful. My personal favorite are the old style 9x9 floor tiles. They're nice & thick and they had cool designs that just don't seem to be reached by today's 12x12 tiles.
They're far more durable than today's 12 x 12 VCT tiles. Seems insane now that they used it in everything but it really had useful properties
Wittenoom town in Australia is abandoned because of asbestos
I wish the joy I felt seeing a new upload and the enthusiasm with which I click on it stuck with me my entire day, I would live in perpetual bliss! 😁 Another home run, bravo!!
But seriously, Nellie's sweet cherub face....😔 RIP dear.
Having dealt with Johns-Manville for years, I was told by their sales man that they were the only company still in existance, that is being held accountable.
I never knew it was a naturally occurring mineral/material. I always thought it was synthetic.