 Asbestos use began to appear in historical
writings again in the 1700s, and its use intensified with the advent
of the Industrial Revolution. In industrial settings, asbestos-containing
products were used for insulation for boilers, steam pipes, turbines,
ovens, kilns, drywall products, and cements.
In 1900, Dr. H. Montague Murray, a physician
at London’s Charing Cross Hospital, performed a post-mortem exam
on a 33-year-old man who had worked in an asbestos textile factory for
14 years.
The patient was suffering from pulmonary fibrosis, and he was
the last survivor of a group of ten men who were working in the carding
room of the factory in 1886. Dr. Murray found traces of asbestos in the
man’s lungs. He concluded that the man died because of his occupation.
A 1906 study determined that there was an uncommonly high mortality
rate among asbestos workers. The study concluded that this was probably
due to the amount of dust that accumulated because of the poor working
conditions, much like the working conditions of stonecutters. The study
recommended that steps be taken to improve the ventilation and decrease
the exposure to dust.
In 1917 and 1918, several studies in the U.S. observed that asbestos
workers were dying unnaturally young.
The first diagnosis of asbestosis was made in 1924. An English doctor
determined that the cause of death of a 33-year-old woman was what he
called “asbestosis.” She had been working with asbestos since
she was 13. Based on this, a study was done on asbestos workers in England.
It found that 25% of them showed evidence of asbestos-related lung disease.
In 1931, England passed laws to increase ventilation and to make asbestosis
a compensable, work-related disease. It took the U.S. ten more years
to take these actions.
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