Asbestos and Fire: Technological Tradeoffs and the Body at Risk

Join us over food and drinks to discuss the book, “Asbestos and Fire: Technological Tradeoffs and the Body at Risk.” Description of the book: For much of the industrial era, asbestos was a widely acclaimed benchmark material. During its heyday, it was manufactured into nearly three thousand different products, most of which protected life and property from heat, flame, and electricity. It was used in virtually every industry from hotel keeping to military technology to chemical manufacturing, and was integral to building construction from shacks to skyscrapers in every community across the United States. Beginning in the mid-1960s, however, this once popular mineral began a rapid fall from grace as growing attention to the serious health risks associated with it began to overshadow the…