THE HISTORY, PRECEDENT, AND
CONTINUAL TORT OF ASBESTOS
LITIGATION
Ben Judge
4.12.2015
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The History and Medical Implications of Asbestos:
Asbestos is a naturally occurring substance that is derived from a silica-based mineral
and is readily available in many areas around the world where it can be easily mined. There are
actually six common forms that all exhibit the same physical features of fibrous crystals that are
subsequently composed of even smaller fibrils (1-3). Though this is an interestingly beautiful
substance, it was originally mined due to its naturally occurring properties of fire/heat-resistance
and tensile strength. Mining of this substance began nearly 5000 years ago based on references
made by ancient Greek writers, philosophers, and physicians. These individuals, including Pliny
the Elder, Herodotus, Pedanius Dioscorides, discussed the use of the material in such items as
funerary blankets, candle wicks, and even integrated into clay for creation of sturdy pottery (3,
4). Even beyond ancient Greece and Cyprus, ancient peoples in Finland made reference to a
material utilized for the creation of their earthenware (5). Use of this material continued on even
through the post-Roman era but before the industrial adaptation of the material in the 19th century
(1).
Commercial production of the material began in Russia in the early 1720s for the
purposes of fabricating clothing to protect those working in early metal foundries (3). But even
then, the health effects associated with this substance were not documented. It wasn’t until the
turn of the 20th century that researchers detailed a definitive negative health impact of asbestos
exposure. These researchers from the United Kingdom determined a connection between
pulmonary fibrosis (now referred to asbestosis) and the exposure to chrysotile asbestos (6). Then
in the 1930s, physicians and researchers discovered an association between the mineral exposure
and lung cancer though this was initially correlated to the presence of the disease asbestosis and
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not solely asbestos exposure (7, 8). It wasn’t until the 1950s that a 20 year exposure study was
performed among a large group of asbestos exposed men found that those exposed to the mineral
had a greatly increased risk of developing lung cancer compared to the average population. Then
in the 1960s it was found that specific variants of the mineral had more deleterious health effects
than others (8). The asbestos mineral form derived from blue asbestos, crocidolite, was directly
connected to an increased risk of developing mesothelioma as compared to the other forms of
chrysotile asbestos. Studies continued to investigate the relation between the asbestos form and
the negative health effects were associated with their exposure whether as an industrial worker or
a miner of the raw mineral (9). These studies continued throughout the 1980s and are the initial
grounding that pushed for industrial reform that would eventually ban asbestos use in the United
States and create the foundation by which individuals suffering from asbestos exposure pursue
legal recourse.
Current medical research is continuing to add to the knowledge base in understanding the
pathways by which asbestos fibrils infiltrate and alter the lung pleura while determining specific
biomarkers by which to assess treatment targets and early recognition of the disease. The work
being done currently is seeking to prevent or reduce the increased morbidity caused by asbestos
exposure (10-12). It also serves as a continued and well emphasized example of the need for
controlled studies in the development of new, universally applied materials that could potentially
have deleterious effects on human or environmental health outcomes. There is not a cure for any
of the diseases associated with asbestos exposure, but prevention measures have been introduced
to decrease the risk of developing lung cancers or mesothelioma (the deadly forms of asbestos
exposure) (10, 13, 14). With the removal of asbestos materials from the industrial market, there
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should be a continual decrease in the number of persons affected. The greatest concern to date
though is the latent disease response that asbestos exposure has for many industrial workers.
Asbestos exposure can result in fairly immediate health effects associated with asbestosis to
long-term and latent health effects such as cancer and mesothelioma that may not arise for
decades after the exposure occurred. Due to this phenomena, the number of individuals seeking
legal recourse against the asbestos industries continues to increase as those exposed develop late-
onset symptoms (2, 15-17). This has caused an ongoing litigious struggle to determine the proper
compensation for those exposed.
History of the Asbestos Industry
As described above, asbestos has been used for thousands of years for many of its
properties, but it wasn’t until the industrial revolution and the entrance into the modern era that
asbestos utilization became almost universally implemented across multiple industries including
metal refineries, electrical component manufacturing, and the insulation industry (2, 10, 18).
Asbestos utilization increased significantly in the late 1800s to the early 1900s and lasted
through the 1970s. By the 1980s, the industry began to scale back production of asbestos. In
1983, mining was halted in the United States. By 1989, asbestos was phased out of all
manufactured goods. Yet it wasn’t until 2003 that the government officially banned the use of
asbestos in industrial and commercial products (19, 20).
The asbestos industry may have been around for centuries, but the massive increase in
use and development in the early 20th century due to World War I and technological advances has
caused a massive increase in the number of asbestos related diseases cases that have persisted
into current time (16, 21, 22). Definitive proof of the adverse effects of asbestos exposure came
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in the 1960s with a study conducted by Irving Selikoff and colleagues (8). They found that
asbestos exposure in insulation workers greatly increased their risk of developing asbestosis and
lung cancers. But even before this, the links between asbestos, asbestosis, and lung cancer were
being found as early as the 1930s. Although findings did shed light on the issues of asbestos
exposure, it can be argued that industry was not aware of this due to the lack of dissemination of
information and potential disregard for academic research at the time. That being said though,
the asbestos industry has been deemed negligent due to the overwhelming facts that were known
at the time and the blatant indifference of the concerns. People have claimed that these asbestos
companies did know the ill-effects of the mineral yet failed to properly warn or protect workers
against exposure (23). Others have also argued that toxic industries such as asbestos and tobacco
use a “social construction of ignorance” in order to maintain doubt about the dangers of the items
