Asbestos kills: no matter how you cut the data (editorial)

Asbestos is a term referring to six naturally occurring silicate materials used commercially for their intrinsic properties of high tensile strength, heat and fire resistance, as well as acoustic and thermal insulation. The English name is derived from a Greek term meaning “inextinguishable.” Aside from its fire retardant properties, humans also discovered early on that asbestos fibres were strong enough to be woven—such that the traditional Chinese character for asbestos 石棉 actually means “stone cotton.” Asbestos fibres occur in two natural configurations, amphibole and serpentine, with a derivative of the latter (chrysotile), accounting for around 95% of all asbestos used around the world. Being more flexible than the amphibole forms, chrysotile asbestos was the most commonly used variant throughout the 20th Century—often as asbestos cement roofing, wall sheeting, water storage tanks and brake pads. Chrysotile mining began in Quebec, Canada, in the late 1870s, and by the 1980s, consumption of asbestos products in the United States alone, had exceeded half a million tons per year.