The industrial field frequently involves the use of heavy machinery, high temperatures, corrosive chemicals and great amounts of power to run the massive facilities. Included in the industrial field are metal works, chemical plants and all the various forms of manufacturing which are part of the secondary sector, refining raw materials into a useful product. The raw materials these industries refine include agriculture, mineral, marine or forest-based products which often require a large input of energy for conversion into a consumer-ready product.  

Asbestos Uses

With such an investment of heat, electricity and chemicals, this industry requires the use of protective materials. One of these materials that could apparently protect against many of the dangers found in this industry is asbestos, which is highly resistant to heat, fire, electricity and chemical corrosion. Asbestos was most often found surrounding and insulating the boilers, furnaces and pipes of these facilities. It also fulfilled a valuable role adding structural stability to metal when used as a coating to prevent heat buckling. Ironically, asbestos was even used as a material in employee protective clothing.

However, asbestos was also useful as an additive to the products produced in industry as well. From household consumer products, like potting mixtures and hair dryers, to commercial construction products, like various forms of insulation and flooring materials, asbestos’ uses were seemingly limitless. Companies like Raybestos-Manhattan and Johns-Manville even promoted their goods by prominently advertising the presence of asbestos.  Asbestos amounts in these manufactured products varied from 1 percent or less to more than 90 percent.

Risks

Unfortunately, for these industrial employees, working with asbestos as a product component or as an insulator in these factories was highly unsafe. Historically, workplace exposure posed the single highest risk of developing mesothelioma or asbestosis, as these employees suffer sustained periods of intense particulate exposure. Although an effective insulator, when damaged asbestos fibers break off into tiny particles which enter the air and can easily be inhaled and stuck in the body. Especially in older facilities, poor ventilation frequently led to the buildup of these particles in dangerous quantities.

However, the employees of these facilities themselves were not the only ones at risk for asbestos exposure. Because these fibers tend to attach to clothing and hair, employees of these facilities often brought the fibers home with them. This secondhand exposure has been shown to be dangerous as well, especially when family members came in contact with that clothing while doing laundry.

Outcome

Early manufacturers were often unwilling to address the high number of employees becoming ill or dying due to their asbestos use. Unwilling to sacrifice their profits by finding a more expensive alternative to asbestos, these company owners and managers frequently ignored or downplayed the risks of exposure. It was not until the rise of the Environmental Protection Agency and OSHA regulations that workplace asbestos use was finally addressed. However, by this time millions of Americans had undergone lethal doses of asbestos exposure which would develop over the next 20 to 50 years.