page_title: Health impact of asbestos
section_title: 1900s–1910s
hierarchical_section_title: Health impact of asbestos / History of health concerns and regulation / 1900s–1910s
caption_attribution_description: English: High magnification micrograph of ferruginous bodies, also asbestos bodies, as seen in asbestosis. Lung biopsy. H&amp;E stain. Ferrunginous bodies are rust coloured (red/brown) baton-shaped segmented rods. Anthracotic pigment (clumps of small black particles) is also seen on the micrograph (at the periphery). See also Image:Asbestosis high mag.jpg - Ferruginous bodies in asbestosis, same case - lower magnification.
context_page_description: All types of asbestos fibers are known to cause serious health hazards in humans. The most common diseases associated with chronic exposure to asbestos are asbestosis and mesothelioma.
  Amosite and crocidolite are considered the most hazardous asbestos fiber types; however, chrysotile asbestos has also produced tumors in animals and is a recognized cause of asbestosis and malignant mesothelioma in humans, and mesothelioma has been observed in people who were occupationally exposed to chrysotile, family members of the occupationally exposed, and residents who lived close to asbestos factories and mines.
  During the 1980s and again in the 1990s it was suggested at times that the process of making asbestos cement could "neutralize" the asbestos, either via chemical processes or by causing cement to attach to the fibers and changing their physical size; subsequent studies showed that this was untrue, and that decades-old asbestos cement, when broken, releases asbestos fibers identical to those found in nature, with no detectable alteration.
context_section_description: Awareness of asbestos-related diseases can be found in the early 1900s, when London doctor H. Montague Murray conducted a post mortem exam on a young asbestos factory worker who died in 1899. Dr. Murray gave testimony on this death in connection with an industrial disease compensation hearing. The post-mortem confirmed the presence of asbestos in the lung tissue, prompting Dr. Murray to express as an expert opinion his belief that the inhalation of asbestos dust had at least contributed to, if not actually caused, the death of the worker.
  The record in the United States was similar. Early observations were largely anecdotal in nature and did not definitively link the occupation with the disease, followed by more compelling and larger studies that strengthened the association. One such study, published in 1918, noted:
  All of these processes unquestionably involve a considerable dust hazard, but the hygienic aspects of the industry have not been reported upon. It may be said, in conclusion, that in the practice of American and Canadian life insurance companies, asbestos workers are generally declined on account of the assumed health-injurious conditions of the industry.
caption: Micrograph demonstrating asbestosis of the lung (ferruginous bodies). H&E stain.
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