Yet another true conspiracy: Asbestos, corporate science & Hollywood
Some of Hollywood’s most beloved films — e.g. The Wizard of Oz and It’s a Wonderful Life — used asbestos as fake snow. You wouldn’t have had “Rosebud” in Citizen Kane if not for the toxic and deadly mineral.
And please don’t try the “they didn’t know better” excuse.
The use of Asbestos dates back at least 2400 BC in Finland and 300 BC in Greece. By the First Century AD, the Roman scholar Pliny the Younger noted that slaves who mined and worked with asbestos regularly contracted a mysterious illness. Fast-forward to 1858 and the asbestos industry was already in full effect in the U.S.
Within six decades, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics would release a report that reveals an abnormally high risk of early death among asbestos workers. But anyone paying attention to this predatory capitalist culture will not be surprised to learn that this reality did nothing to slow down the use of a known carcinogen.
Ask the people of Libby, Montana.
In 1919, ruthless companies first started mining vermiculite ore in Libby. Here’s a description of what happened during this process:
“Vermiculite is a naturally occurring mineral with heat-resistant properties. Vermiculite and asbestos form under similar conditions. The two minerals sometimes develop alongside each other, and the asbestos contaminated Libby’s vermiculite deposit.”
W.R. Grace & Company took over the mines in 1963 — fully aware of the asbestos danger. Grace didn’t get to $3.765 billion in assets by being honest and careful. (Note: One of W.R. Grace corporation's biggest stockholders by 1980 was the Frick Group, known to have profited from Nazi takeovers of Jewish-owned businesses.) Instead, they plowed forward for decades, and here’s a small taste of what happened next:
There was a 15-fold increased risk of mesothelioma among W.R Grace workers compared to residents who didn’t work around the mine
An estimated 694 Libby residents have died of asbestos-related diseases
At least 1 in 10 people in Libby currently have an asbestos-related illness with approximately 2,400 having been diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases since the contamination began
Trust the Science™.
In 1989, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) attempted to phase out asbestos in the U.S. but two years later — under pressure from lobbyists — the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the EPA’s ban and phase-out of products containing asbestos.
There is no safe level of asbestos.
It remains in regular use in the Home of the Brave™.
Big first step for those still clinging to official narratives: Never, ever trust a corporation again.
Lions and tigers and... asbestos! oh my.
I didn't know this. Not surprised of course. Thanks - even though I will never watch those movies in with the same 'innocence'. Danka
I've long been bemused by the trust placed in corporations. It's a baked-in lesson, learned in childhood, that impunity has a bad effect on the behaviour of people who are already pressured or inclined to a ruthless pursuit of e.g. wealth extraction.