Each year, in the U.S., 15,000 Americans die of diseases related to asbestos exposure and the asbestos cancer risk continues to grow.

Many cancers are triggered by asbestos, including asbestos lung cancer and mesothelioma, and these are among the leading causes of workplace illness and death.

It has been recently found that, as the asbestos cancer risk continues to grow, the asbestos industry is doing its best to allegedly coverup that asbestos exposure knowledge to the public.

Asbestos Inhalation

For more than a century, the knowledge of the risks of asbestos inhalation have been known. As far back as 1900, an English doctor cited the cause of death for a 33-year-old factory worker as asbestos inhalation and by the 1930s, the disease was given a name: asbestosis.

Asbestos is a mineral that came into widespread use because the material was very useful for many things. Asbestos is both fireproof and extremely heat-resistant under industrial conditions, leading to its use as an insulator and use in high-temperature applications.

In World War II, asbestos was widely used by the Navy for building ships and used asbestos as a fireproof insulator.

Industry Memos and Asbestos Cancer Risk

In 1948 a scientist in the insulation industry sent an internal memo warning the industry of the risks of asbestos. Dr. Arthur J. Vorwald, the director of the Trudeau Foundation wrote, “I realize that our findings regarding Kaylo (brand of insulation) are less favorable than anticipated. However, since Kaylo is capable of producing asbestosis, it is better to discover it now in animals rather than later in industrial workers.”

One year later, a confidential internal memo from Exxon lists the asbestos cancer risk as a complication of asbestosis.

And then in 1958, a memo listed as confidential from the National Gypsum Co. claimed that almost a certain result of asbestos inhalation is asbestosis.

But perhaps one of the most blatant memo addressing the hidden asbestos cancer risk came from the Bendix Corporation (now Honeywell) in 1966. “My answer to the problem is: if you have enjoyed a good life while working with asbestos products why not die from it,” the director of purchases wrote.

Other internal memos have surfaced from Babcok and Wilcox in 1978, Ford Motor Company in 1971 and Union Carbide in 1972 that all show that companies knew the risks, yet did not move toward protecting employees.

For the asbestos industry, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks including asbestosis, asbestos lung cancer and other asbestos cancer risk. Ford concluded that it was too expensive to spend money on safer alternatives to asbestos used in their brakes.

In the mid 1980s Ford spent more than $40 million in commissioning research to discover risks of asbestos. The scientific consulting companies Ford hired allegedly minimized the asbestos cancer risk in their findings.

Georgia-Pacific has also, allegedly, paid for asbestos scientific research that benefits them.

These memos and “science for sale” are only a cross-section of the coverup that spans the last 70 years in the asbestos industry. The industry would like nothing better than to minimize the asbestos cancer risk the public knows about.

The asbestos industry backs lobbying efforts at the federal and state levels that will pass legislation making it very difficult for asbestos victims and their families to receive care and compensation as a result of their asbestos-related cancer.