Asbestos is a natural heat- and electricity-resistant fiber that is mined from the earth. It has been around for as long as 2000 years back. The ancient Greeks named it "asbestos" which means "inextinguishable" because fire does not consume it. They used it as wicks for the vestal virgins' eternal flames.

And even then, they had already noticed that slaves who often came in contact with asbestos developed a "sickness of the lungs." Nonetheless, they were so fascinated with what they considered its magical properties that they turned a blind eye to its observed harmful effects.

It is believed that Charlemagne use asbestos tablecloths during the middle ages.

In the late 1800s, during the Industrial Revolution, the use of asbestos as insulation for turbines, steam pipes, boilers, kilns and other high-temperature machines surged.

In the twentieth century, researchers began to seriously study the harmful effects of asbestos. In 1917 and 1918, it was noticed that in towns where asbestos mining was a primary industry, many young people suffered premature deaths.

It was found that when humans come in frequent contact with asbestos, the fibers enter the body either through inadvertent swallowing or inhalation. When this happens, the fibers cause disease in the victim.

The newly discovered disease was called "asbestosis."

In 1931, legislation was enacted to ensure that asbestos processing industries put ample ventilation for their workers' work areas, and asbestosis was recognized as a work-related disease.

Despite the increasing number of published studies that showed the dangers asbestos imposed on people's health, large companies continued to use asbestos despite the fact that safer insulation alternatives, like fiberglass, were available to replace it. Up to the late 1980s, asbestos was widely used in construction materials, from asbestos-cement sheeting for ceilings and walls, to corrugated asbestos cement used for roof cladding.

Asbestos companies have also had their own researches on the effects of asbestos - and they are hiding the findings of these researches in order to avoid their employees' lawsuits. Million dollar lawsuits have been filed by asbestos workers for the health hazards their companies have exposed them to. Many of these workers already have mesothelioma cancer, and are facing certain death.

The Author runs a blog on Asbestos Effects and How to Do Anything. http://www.askyaba.com/