Asbestos Education
Asbestos education must include a close investigation of the history of asbestos, alongside where it is found and what types exist, and of course, how has it been used. All of these factors, taken in tandem, provide a thorough and important asbestos education program, though the history of asbestos is less often noted. The ancient Greeks named asbestos, and early on, they too recognized both its uses and its dangers. Many involved in asbestos education agree that some of the use of asbestos in the ancient world included its use to make funeral shrouds for deceased royals. The king’s body, upon his death, would be wrapped in an asbestos shroud and burned on a funeral pyre. Since asbestos does not burn, the king’s ashes remained within the shroud, from which they were removed and preserved in burial chambers.
Other asbestos education experts argue that asbestos was used in ancient cultures, like the Greeks, to make wicks for lamps that would burn perpetually. And, even though asbestos irritates skin on contact, in later centuries it was used unsuccessfully to treat certain skin diseases. Even though the ancients used asbestos in a variety of functions, asbestos education resources indicate that both the Greeks and the Romans recognized that slaves who wove asbestos into their clothing fabrics often developed diseases that severely affected the lungs and abdominal cavity.
In more recent times, particularly during the industrial revolution in the mid to late nineteenth century, asbestos has been used in concrete, bricks, pipe insulation, ceiling insulation, and of course as a fire proofing insulation between walls and ascending levels in modern architectural designs. According to asbestos education experts, it wasn’t until the mid to late twentieth century that an understanding and admission of the dangers of asbestos became more publicly known. For example, even though the first death attributed to asbestos in the U.K was in 1924, Kent cigarettes, the first filtered cigarettes sold, contained asbestos in the filter from 1952 to 1956.
Today, there are strict regulations in place regarding the use of, but more importantly, the safe removal of asbestos and asbestos based products in homes, schools, and workplaces. The history of asbestos is an engaging, fascinating, and at times baffling part of the comprehensive asbestos education programs developing today.