What Is Asbestos, Anyways?

Asbestos is a naturally-occurring mineral, like quartz or silica. It’s pulled out of a mine like an ore. Although it can be found in rocks in a lot of places around the globe, it’s most often mined in some areas near the Canadian-U.S. border, and in Africa and Russia. Sometimes, when miners are trying to reach one sort of rock, they get asbestos instead. That’s what happened in Libby, Montana, where the vermiculite the miners wanted was tainted with the asbestos they didn’t.

There are different types of asbestos. One type, called amphibole asbestos, has microscopically small fibers that are like long, straight, thin needles. There’s another type called chrysotile where the tiny needles are curly. Chrysotile asbestos is supposed to be less dangerous than amphibole, and is more commonly used today.

Asbestos fibers really are remarkable. They’re an engineer’s dream. They can withstand anything: ferocious heat, electricity, acid. They last forever. Nothing seems to destroy them.

Asbestos doesn’t care what form it’s in. It can be woven into cloth, mixed into liquids such as cement, poured like powder, formed into shapes such as bricks or half-rounds of pipe insulation. Whatever shape it’s formed into, it still works as a natural insulator of heat and electricity.

It was used for everything in industrial facilities:

Insulators used tubes of asbestos insulation, cut down one long end into “half-rounds,” to encase hot pipes. They cut the insulation into the necessary lengths with a power saw and watched the dust fly. To protect the newly-applied insulation and seal any cracks, they mixed powdered asbestos into a mortar-like mix, stirred it with a stick in a bucket or wheelbarrow, and troweled it on.

Welders used asbestos cloth to build box-like structures so the sparks from their torches wouldn’t fly around refineries and chemical plants. They wore asbestos gloves and used asbestos-containing welding rods. Sometimes they took naps on stacks of asbestos cloth.

Foundry workers wore asbestos aprons and gloves to protect themselves while pouring hot metal. Lab technicians used asbestos hot pads and protective clothing while handling hot glass.

Bricklayers lined the interiors of boilers with asbestos-containing bricks called firebricks and anchored them in place with asbestos-containing mortar. Their helpers swept up the dust with push-brooms in a shower of dust. This was an enclosed space.

So many construction materials contained asbestos that a list of them reads like a sales list at a hardware store. Roofing felt and shingles contained asbestos (some still do). So did flooring materials, such as sheet vinyl and the glue that held it down. Electrical switches were insulated with asbestos, then used in all sorts of devices, from elevators to toasters.

All sorts of wallboard and finishing products contained asbestos, including texturing material. This came as a powder that had to be mixed with water, then layered onto the wall. After it dried, it had to be sanded, often with the worker’s face only inches from the flying dust.

Do-it-yourselfers were in as much danger from these products as the professionals. People have died from mesothelioma when their only asbestos exposure was redecorating the living room.

Steel girders in industrial facilities and high-rise buildings were sprayed with liquid fireproofing materials, mixed with asbestos.

There is some evidence that, if the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center had been sprayed with asbestos insulation, they would not have burned.