Asbestos Education
When the warriors of the middle Ages were lining their armor with asbestos to serve as insulation and Romans found it made a good construction material, they probably weren’t thinking of the health risks. This strong fibrous miracle material didn’t burn or conduct heat and many uses were found for it.
By the turn of the 19th century, asbestos was used in steam locomotives to insulate and regulate heat. Later it was used for automotive applications and housing insulation. By the 1970’s, however the first signs of medical problems were associated with asbestos exposure and since then it’s been found, through asbestos education, that mesothelioma is the result of asbestos exposure.
Since mesothelioma may take 10 to 15 years to develop, many of the people who developed it did not associate their affliction to working in shipyards years before. It was through extensive asbestos education that this fact became known. Articles from the Social Studies Help Center points out that it was through asbestos education that those who had to work with asbestos were taught to treat it safely and avoid breathing the fibers into their lungs.
During construction in the 1970s and 1980s asbestos was used in some fibrous materials such as cement, as an aggregate, which also had insulating properties. Through asbestos education this practice was discontinued. Determine if concrete contain it requires a close visual inspection and may require microscopic examination to make an accurate determination. Through proper education asbestos is still considered a miracle material, and safe ways of handling it are keeping illnesses from its use to a minimum.