The Resources section has been expanded greatly in response to your recommendations. Please tell us what has been most helpful to you, what you would like to see or share a hotsite with us that we should post to our resources directory. Thank you for your positive response. At the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, Edward Libbey, an American, exhibited lamp shades, a dress, and other articles woven from glass fibers. In 1915, the Allied Forces blockaded Germany and created an asbestos shortage which resulted in full-scale U.S. production of fiber glass as an asbestos substitute.
Fiber glass has many of the same characteristics as asbestos.
I n 1941, the U.S. Patent Office issued patents for 353 glass wool products. F iber glass is now used for thermal insulation of industrial buildings and homes, as acoustic insulation, for fireproofing, as a reinforcing material in plastics, cement, and textiles, in automotive components, in gaskets and seals, in filters for air and fluids, and for many other miscellaneous uses. More than 30,000 commercial products now contain fiber glass. A s asbestos has been phased out because of health concerns, fiber glass production in the U.S. has been rising. F iber glass is now causing serious health concerns among U.S. officials and health researchers.