Development of Knowledge About Hazards of Asbestos
This is the first in a series of occasional notes about the development of knowledge about the hazards of asbestos—so where better to start then at the beginning. The purpose of this column is not to discuss exhaustively each and every article in the development of the history of knowledge of the hazards of asbestos, but to provide an overview of the material that was known and knowable throughout the time that this public health disaster could have been prevented or curtailed, and to understand how the consistent early warnings about the dangers of asbestos went unheeded, the opportunities for early corporate reform and government regulation were tragically ignored and, as a result, a large number of people needlessly lost their lives.
While many students of the historical development of knowledge about the hazards of asbestos focus in the period following the Merewether and Price report in 1930, knowledge about the hazards of asbestos begins much earlier. Perhaps the "mother" of early warnings about the hazards of asbestos was Lucy Deane. Lucy Deane was a Lady Factory Inspector in Great Britain. ln 1898, many years before Merewether's article, Inspector Deane reported…
The evil effects of asbestos dust have also attracted my attention, a microscopic examination of this mineral dust which was made by H.M. Medical Inspector clearly revealed the sharp, glass-like, jagged nature of the particles, and where they are allowed to rise and to remain suspended in the air of a room, in any quantity, the effects have been found to be injurious, as might have been expected.
As in china-scouring, so in a still greater degree in other dusty trades, the worker may continue for a very long time apparently unaffected, before the symptoms of the evil become marked.
It is often impossible to bring positive proof of definite injury solely attributable to working in a dusty atmosphere, for except in extreme cases the symptoms are similar to those attributable to other causes; but the certainty of the danger can be clearly demonstrated, as, for instance, by examination of the dust particles. Even when the evil reaches such grave proportions as to be capable of easy and tragic proof as in the case of china scouring or flax preparing, there is always certain protection of "old workers"—the survivors of their mates—who are to be found in every unhealthy industry, and who, like the Circassian poison-eaters, appear to thrive on their unhealthy calling.
In less obviously unhealthy conditions the only convincing proof of actual injury, viz, reliable comparative statistics of mortality, or of health standards, is practically unattainable in the case of any given factory, at any rate with the time and opportunity at present at our disposal.
See the Annual Report of Chief Inspector of Factories and Workshops For The Year 1898: Part II, Reports; London, Darling & Son, 1898, pages 171-172.
A few years later, in 1906, the Inspector of Factories and Workshop's Report also started to discuss rudimentary efforts at ventilation to prevent asbestos injury and how to assess the results of ventilation installed in the factories examined by Inspector Deane. As set forth in the Annual Report of the Chief Inspector of Factories and Workshops For The Year 1906:
Miss Deane re-visited recently for me the asbestos works on which I specially reported to you in 1898 on account of marked injury at that time to the health of the workers. There a greatly improved installation of exhaust ventilation was applied to the carding machines, and Miss Deane reports now that there is far less complaint of injuy to health. In one very large asbestos works in the textile district of Lancashire an excellent system of exhaust ventilation has been applied to every machine, and it is reported that the health record is good. The complete register of this special class of works, which you have compiled for our use, will materially aid us in bringing all into a better condition. Miss Paterson is following up the question as regards Scotland and the North of England.1
Endnotes
- Annual Report of the Chief Inspector of Factories and Workshops For The Year 1906; London, Darling & Son, 1906, pages 219-220.