Mesothelioma - The Products Contain Asbestos

The 1960s saw the onset of litigation seeking to work out whether asbestos was a cause of Mesothelioma, a rare and brutal form of cancer. Thirty years later the verdict was in and the EPA issued an order banning asbestos in products. The ban was overturned in large part in 1991 by an appellate court. The ruling raises the question of what products did and still contain asbestos.

Asbestos is a fibrous form of a few different minerals. It is very unique in nature in that it is a natural heat repellent. It melts only at the highest of temperatures. This makes it a great material for our industrial society because heat and fire is a byproduct of so much of what we do. Given this, asbestos was long viewed as a miracle material of sort. Of course, it was later discovered the fibers could lodge in the lungs and lead to a host of heath problems including lung cancer and Mesothelioma.

We often hear and read about asbestos being used in products. This is a rather vague statement. Just what products are we talking about here? Well, the specific products basically were anything dealing with heat in the 1960s. A classic example included the pipes and boilers in ships. Every sailor can tell you fire is their biggest fear at sea. Asbestos served as a great insulator on ships and was used extensively. Unsurprisingly, many shipyard workers have come down with Mesothelioma over the years.

Ships are great and all as an example, but what about something more common? Well, consider your car. The brakes work by pushing pads against a moving source. As the pads are pushed harder, the moving source slows and so do the wheels. This creates a lot of heat. To combat it, the pads on most vehicles were largely made of asbestos for decades! How about homes and buildings? Fire is again a concern, so asbestos was used in everything from wall insulation to roof shingles to the "popcorn" on ceilings to the insulation around pipes leading from the water heater to...well, just about everything.

The list of products incorporating asbestos are nearly endless. For a long period of time, fire safety equipment used by emergency personnel actually incorporated it! Imagine that! The fortunate news is Mesothelioma did not develop in a vast majority of people who were exposed to asbestos. Given the fact the survival rate is very low, this meant millions of deaths were avoided.