Asbestos: the miracle mineral of our worst nightmares

For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, the mining and use of asbestos grew almost steadily, with virtually every material used in the construction of homes, offices, ships, road networks and industries exhibiting this miraculous mineral in one way or another. Some of these materials would contain only a few percent of asbestos as a binder, while others would be composed mainly or entirely of asbestos.

What had started as a curiosity thousands of years ago was now turning into material that helped propel humanity into an era of previously unheard of levels of prosperity and technological advancement. It seemed like adding a little asbestos would make homes weatherproof and fireproof, make concrete and asphalt nearly indestructible, and add just that little bit of pizzazz to tiling and interior decorations, as well as rigidity to today's predecessor. plastics: bakelite.

"Damaged Asbestos Roof" by Harald Weber

Being a fibrous material, asbestos would also be used everywhere for insulation purposes, as well as around boilers, steam pipes and anywhere else where the properties of heat retention but thermal stability were very useful. Yet we all know how this story unfolded: in the 1970s, it was clear that humanity had almost unwittingly entered a nightmare, where every house, every surface and every basement was a potential death trap.

With a war in Ukraine leveling entire cities and Europe seeking to revitalize its asbestos-filled post-war housing stock in the face of an energy crisis, this risk is more real than ever. So how did we get here and what can we do about it?

The first uses of asbestos were found in the form of ceramic asbestos. They are basically pottery that mixes varying degrees of clay and asbestos mineral. Products with a high asbestos content (90%) made in this way would have been very resistant to heat, which together with the other forms shows evidence of having been used with metalworking. Potentially, this heat resistant property would have been extremely useful in the Iron and Bronze Ages.

Furthermore, the fibrous strands made it possible to make asbestos ware much lighter and stronger than comparable pure clay pottery. Later in history, ancient Greek would call asbestos "amiantos", which is also preserved in modern Greek, French and other Latin languages. Due to an error committed...