Asbestos is a bigger problem than we thought

Researchers discover asbestos contamination at an outdoor location, finding dangerous blue fibrous material scattered in the environment.

The same material used in World Trade Center construction was pulverized during the tower collapse, releasing microscopic particles that thousands of people unknowingly breathed in.

• Found in popular off-roading spots • Detected in makeup and cosmetics • Present in children's toys • Discovered in school and home dust

Diseases linked to 9/11 asbestos exposure have killed more than twice as many people as the attacks themselves, with an estimated 2.8 million deaths possible by 2035.

Greek legend described a golden lantern with an inextinguishable wick that would burn for a whole year without going out, powered by a special naturally occurring mineral.

• Silicon atom surrounded by four oxygen atoms forming silica tetrahedrons • Incredibly stable pyramid-shaped units with strong electrostatic bonds • Structure keeps growing through linked tetrahedra across multiple layers • Bonds prevent oxygen from reacting, making the material fireproof

The mineral forms scroll-like tubes that are flexible like cotton but remain stable up to 600 degrees Celsius. When twisted, the fibers don't break, creating a rock that can be woven.

• Theater curtains for fire safety • Insulation blankets for steam engines • Fireproof clothing for workers • Named asbestos meaning inextinguishable

Between 1790 and 1870, urban population in America jumped from 1 in 20 to 1 in 4, forcing builders to pack wooden buildings tightly together while residents used open flames for cooking and lighting.

• December 1835 Great Fire of New York destroyed nearly 700 buildings • Cost of $20 million (over $730 million in today's money) • Similar catastrophes in Chicago, London, Hamburg, and Tokyo • Embers carried by wind ignited other roofs in chain reactions

Henry Ward Johns invented fireproof roofing by mixing tar with asbestos fibers pressed onto cloth, revolutionizing fire safety in construction.

By 1927, Johns' company generated $45 million in annual sales. Consumption grew from 20,400 tons in 1900 to 803,000 tons in 1973, with fire-related deaths dropping around 80% during this period.

• Inside brake pads, toasters, and ironing boards • Hair dryers, surgical dressings, and blankets • Beer filtration and toothpaste polish • Fake snow in department stores and movies

Chrysotile white asbestos forms flexible sheets, brown amosite creates rigid needle-like fibers for cement panels, and blue crocidolite with fine flexible fibers comparable to steel wire was used in chemical-resistant insulation and gas mask filters.

Kent cigarettes featured Micronite filters made from blue asbestos crocidolite, meaning smokers inhaled asbestos directly through the filter.

Major operations spread across Canada, Russia, and South Africa, with global production peaking at approximately 4.8 million tons per year in 1977.

Nelly Kershaw, a factory worker, breathed asbestos dust daily while spinning fibers into threads, becoming severely ill by her thirties. She died at age 33 with lungs scarred, gray, and blue-black from mineral grit.

• Asbestos fibers lodge in lung tissue alveolar sacs • Macrophage cells cannot digest long stiff fibers • Inflammatory chemicals released damage surrounding lung tissue • Accumulated damage over years causes asbestosis and cancer

In 1924, Dr. William Cook published the first medical description of asbestosis. British government examination of hundreds of workers found 25% showing lung disease, with 80% showing signs for those with over 20 years exposure.

In 1931, asbestos was classified as a workplace hazard, but rules only covered manufacturing factories. In the US, there were no binding federal rules, only recommendations allowing up to 300 million asbestos particles per hour to be considered safe.

Ships packed with asbestos insulation required workers to cut and fit materials in thick clouds of fibers during wartime production, meeting official safety guidelines despite dangerous conditions.

Asbestos was marketed as a magic material with Johns-Manville's president featured on Time magazine's April 3, 1939 cover.

Despite safety appearances, exposed workers faced deadlier odds than soldiers: 8.6 servicemen per 1,000 killed in action versus 14 per 1,000 shipyard workers dying from asbestos-related cancers.

Dr. Irving Selikoff tracked down WWII shipyard workers using FBI personnel records and discovered widespread asbestosis, mesothelioma cases, and cancer rates seven times higher than expected.

• Industry-funded research minimized exposure risks • Coordinated PR efforts to discredit Dr. Selikoff • Spread rumors questioning Selikoff's medical credentials • Attempted to frame findings as overblown

Despite pressure, Selikoff worked 18-hour days documenting patients, publishing devastating health data, and contacting policymakers and world leaders to demand action against asbestos.

By the 1970s, miners, factory workers, and shipyard insulators exposed decades earlier developed multiple cancers in huge numbers, proving asbestos exposure triggered lung cancer, mesothelioma, gastrointestinal cancers, and cancers in the brain, bone marrow, spleen, pancreas, prostate, and liver.

• Attorney Carl Ash found internal Raybestos Manhattan documents from 1935 • Executives admitted investigating health hazards since the 1930s • Correspondence revealed intent to suppress asbestos information • Companies controlled research funding and publication of results

Saranac Laboratories research conducted in the 1930s showed cancer risks, but asbestos companies controlled publication. After the lead researcher died in 1946, the companies edited the report and buried evidence, crossing out sections mentioning cancer.

A Johns-Manville medical official testified that until 1971, the company had a policy of not telling workers if their physicals showed signs of asbestosis or lung cancers.

In sworn testimony, a witness recalled asking the Johns-Manville president why they weren't warning workers about asbestos. The president replied that letting workers stay employed until death saved the company money.

• Johns-Manville acquired the biggest rock wool company • Acquired firms holding calcium silicate insulation patents • Incentivized competitors to create asbestos product lines • Eliminated competition's ability to market asbestos-free alternatives

In 1982, Johns-Manville filed for bankruptcy protection not because they were broke, but to shield the company from a flood of asbestos lawsuits.

Despite overwhelming evidence against them, Johns-Manville survived bankruptcy and continues operating to this day, though no longer producing asbestos.

Between 1940 and 1980, the asbestos industry exposed roughly 21 million Americans to asbestos fibers, causing at least 8 to 10,000 deaths every year with many more suffering lifelong disease.

In 1989, the EPA issued a rule to phase out almost all asbestos, but the industry sued claiming the EPA hadn't proved an outright ban was the only solution. In 1991, courts ruled the EPA hadn't met the narrow legal standard, and the ban was defeated.

After years of regulation efforts, only six minerals became official asbestos minerals: chrysotile and five amphiboles. Anything else fiber-like but not in these six categories doesn't count as asbestos regardless of danger.

• Found in children's makeup products through 2017 • Detected in Claire's branded cosmetic items worldwide • Present in toy fingerprint kits and Mickey Mouse crayons • Discovered in school and home play sand

No one intentionally puts asbestos in makeup or toys. Asbestos contamination occurs naturally where minerals like talc and vermiculite form mixed with asbestos fibers underground.

When asbestos was found in Claire's products in 2017, the manufacturer disputed results. They sponsored a laboratory claiming the materials were cleavage fragments or clay instead of asbestos, but the researcher found asbestos in Claire's products from Brazil to Japan to London.

The vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana formed mixed with amphibole asbestos fibers. W.R. Grace, the mine operator, knew the ore contained asbestos and that people were getting sick but didn't warn the town for almost 30 years.

• Hundreds of miners exposed to asbestos daily • Workers brought dust home on clothes exposing families • Five generations of people died from exposure • Nearly 200 deaths documented in town of fewer than 3,000

Besides lung disease and cancer, researchers found rates of autoimmune diseases were nearly six times higher than the national average in Libby.

In 2009, the EPA declared Libby a public health emergency, calling it the worst case of industrial poisoning of a community in US history. W.R. Grace shipped Libby vermiculite nationwide, exposing millions of homes to asbestos insulation.

W.R. Grace made a fireproof spray used on steel frames of high-rise buildings, including the World Trade Center. By 1970, over half of US multi-story buildings used this spray.

The spray was marketed as asbestos-free despite containing asbestos. Grace lobbied regulators to adopt a threshold where products containing less than 1% asbestos would not be regulated.

The 1% rule shaped how asbestos was detected, regulated, and ignored everywhere. This decision reshaped asbestos regulation nationwide beyond just Libby products.

Grace's fireproof spray containing asbestos was used on the World Trade Center steel frames, ensuring massive asbestos release when the towers collapsed.

The EPA used polarized light microscopy (PLM) to detect asbestos in ground zero dust. PLM struggles to detect asbestos if it's less than 1% by weight and cannot see fibers smaller than about five micrometers.

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) can magnify up to a million times compared to light microscopy's thousand times, allowing detection of finest fibers that enter lungs.

• Researchers using TEM found asbestos levels far above EPA safety thresholds • Fibers were smaller than normal and especially dangerous • Results posted on American Industrial Hygiene Association website disappeared within hours • Researchers removed from ground zero job less than 24 hours later

New Yorkers were told air was safe when it wasn't. As of December 2023, 6,781 registered World Trade Center Health Program members have died from illness or cancer linked to Ground Zero exposure.

Current counting rules define asbestos based on fibers much longer than the vast majority that are actually inhaled. Most dangerous Libby amphibole fibers don't count as asbestos by regulatory definition.

• When longer fibers break, forming cleavage fragments, they don't count as asbestos • Research shows cleavage fragments in mice cause serious illness • Regulatory system ignores these known dangers • Ways of detecting exposure are fundamentally flawed

A single fiber from Las Vegas site contained two different mineral phases: one side met the definition of regulated asbestos mineral, the other side was completely unregulated, despite being equally dangerous to lungs.

The same dust could be considered asbestos-contaminated under one definition and perfectly safe under another, making consistency impossible.

Geologists Brenda Buck and Rod Metcalf found amphibole asbestos spread across approximately 1 million acres outside Las Vegas, despite no asbestos mines, industrial sites, or commercial use history.

• Nevada sent cease and desist letter to researchers • Officials questioned Brenda and Rod's methods • State officials tailed researchers in Boulder City • Clear message: stop looking further

Samples from the dry lake bed near Las Vegas showed 30 to 50 million asbestos structures per gram of mud. Dune buggy air samples didn't detect asbestos, but wet soil had incredibly high concentrations.

For 13 years, published research on naturally occurring asbestos in Nevada existed, yet no warning signs informed the public. People regularly drive, camp, do photo shoots and even weddings at off-roading spots without knowing about asbestos contamination.

In 2016, Congress passed an amendment giving the EPA new power to evaluate and restrict dangerous chemicals including asbestos. However, progress stalled under the Trump administration, which publicly praised asbestos for years.

• In 2024, the US finally banned chrysotile asbestos • Ban doesn't cover the other five types of asbestos • Allows manufacturers up to 12 years to phase out • Doesn't address asbestos already in schools and homes

In 2019, India imported more than 350,000 tons of asbestos, with 6 million people predicted to develop asbestos-related diseases in upcoming decades. Similar expansion occurring in many other Asian countries.

The EPA is already getting sued again over the ban. Asbestos doesn't naturally decay in the environment, so all previously mined material remains a persistent hazard.

Having asbestos in your house doesn't automatically mean danger if you don't disturb it. However, asbestos becomes an issue if particles go airborne, and most people don't know which houses contain asbestos or where it is located.

• No comprehensive inventory of asbestos locations • Unclear who's responsible for removal • No agreed-upon removal methods • Questions about proper disposal procedures remain

Like knowing about flooding zones, earthquake risks, hurricanes and tornadoes, people should know about asbestos as a natural hazard. Better information enables healthier life decisions.

Scientists and journalists reporting on asbestos have faced economic pressure, political pressure, buried research, and even death threats. This uncomfortable topic affects many people without their knowledge, making awareness crucial.

In a previous PFAS video, the narrator claimed asbestos had been properly handled like lead gasoline and Freon, completely oblivious to the ongoing crisis.

The narrator later discovered his grandfather died because of asbestos and his father is likely dying from it. He didn't know this when he started researching asbestos under microscopes or changing vehicle brakes.

• Didn't know exposures from old brake work • Didn't know from running through asbestos dust • Didn't realize personal connections to the disease • Only realized after detailed research

Every scientist and journalist interviewed for this video said the same thing: this is a hard story to get out there. Despite discomfort, these topics matter most because they have the potential to do the most good.