Veritasium
February 17, 2026
The Hidden Asbestos Crisis: Why a Deadly Mineral Remains in Use
TL;DR
Asbestos, a naturally occurring mineral once celebrated for its fireproofing properties, has killed more people than initially known—yet industry suppression, regulatory loopholes, and its natural prevalence mean the danger persists in homes, products, and the environment today.
Key Takeaways
- 1Asbestos was deliberately concealed as dangerous by major manufacturers like Johns-Manville from the 1930s onward, despite internal evidence of severe health risks and cancer.
- 2The mineral causes multiple cancers and diseases by lodging in lung tissue and other organs, triggering a cascade of cellular damage and inflammation that continues for decades.
- 3Regulatory definitions of asbestos are narrow and outdated, excluding dangerous variants and fibers too small or fragmented to detect with standard testing methods.
- 4Asbestos is still mined and imported globally at scale—India alone imported over 350,000 tons in 2019—and naturally occurs in soil in many regions including Nevada.
- 5The 1% rule and PLM detection method create blind spots, allowing asbestos to hide in cosmetics, children's toys, talc powder, and other consumer products as recently as 2017.
- 6Even after the 2024 U.S. ban on chrysotile asbestos, five other types remain legal, and billions of tons already in buildings and the environment pose ongoing public health risks.
Notable Quotes
“I think the less said about asbestos, the better off we are.”
— Sumner Simpson, Raybestos Manhattan president, 1935
“Do you mean to tell me you would let them work until they dropped dead? Yes, we save a lot of money that way.”
— Johns-Manville president (early 1940s meeting, recalled in sworn testimony)
“People aren't just eating it and breathing it, they're mainlining it.”
— Researcher describing asbestos contamination in intravenous drugs
“The ways that we are right now telling people whether they're being exposed or not is a lie!”
— Expert on asbestos counting and detection standards
Chapters
1. The Miracle Material: Asbestos Discovery and Rise
Asbestos, a naturally occurring silicate mineral with fiber-like structure, was celebrated for its fireproofing properties. Henry Ward Johns's invention in 1868 made asbestos-based products commercially viable. By the 1970s, asbestos was ubiquitous in construction, vehicles, appliances, and consumer goods, peaking at 4.8 million tons per year globally. Its unique properties made it seem like a miracle solution to fire hazards in rapidly urbanizing industrial cities.
2. The Science of Asbestos and Its Types
Asbestos minerals form in distinct ways: chrysotile (white) forms serpentine sheets that curl into tubes; amphiboles like amosite (brown) and crocidolite (blue) form rigid chains creating needle-like fibers. These differences in structure lead to variations in fiber size, flexibility, and persistence. The six officially regulated types represent only those mined commercially, despite many other asbestos-like minerals existing in nature.
3. Early Health Evidence and Industrial Suppression (1920s–1960s)
By 1924, Dr. William Cook documented asbestosis in factory worker Nelly Kershaw, showing how lodged fibers cause scarring and disease. In the 1930s, Johns-Manville and Raybestos Manhattan conspired to suppress research, control studies at Saranac Laboratories, and minimize public awareness. Internal documents revealed deliberate policies not to inform workers of asbestos-related illnesses. Dr. Irving Selikoff's research in the 1960s exposed widespread mesothelioma, lung cancer, and other cancers among shipyard and factory workers.
4. Legal Battle and the Bankruptcy Shield (1970s–1980s)
Lawsuits multiplied as evidence of corporate knowledge and coverup became undeniable. Discovery of the Sumner Simpson papers proved intentional suppression of evidence. In 1982, Johns-Manville filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy—not due to insolvency but to shield itself from litigation. Despite overwhelming evidence, the company survived and continues operating today, though no longer producing asbestos.
5. Failed Regulation and the 1% Rule
The EPA attempted to ban asbestos in 1989, but industry sued on technical grounds, arguing the EPA hadn't proven a ban was the only solution. Courts sided with industry in 1991. W.R. Grace's lobbying led to adoption of the '1% rule'—products with less than 1% asbestos were unregulated. This threshold, combined with the limitations of polarized light microscopy (PLM) detection, created massive blind spots in monitoring and enforcement.
6. Ground Zero and 9/11: A Real-World Test
The World Trade Center collapse exposed thousands to pulverized asbestos fibers. The EPA used PLM, which cannot detect the smallest fibers and struggles with particles under 1%. Researchers using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) found dangerous levels above EPA safety thresholds, but their results were removed from public websites and the researchers were terminated. New Yorkers were declared safe while exposed to significant asbestos contamination; over 6,700 9/11-related deaths have been linked to the exposure.
7. Hidden in Plain Sight: Consumer Products and Libby, Montana
Asbestos resurfaced in 2017 in Claire's cosmetics, children's toys, and talc-based products because asbestos naturally contaminates other minerals like talc and vermiculite during mining. W.R. Grace's Libby, Montana mine exposed 21 million Americans to amphibole asbestos through vermiculite used in insulation and potting soil. The company suppressed warnings for 30 years; by 1999, nearly 200 deaths had occurred in a town of 3,000. The EPA declared it the worst industrial poisoning in U.S. history in 2009.
8. Natural Occurrence and Detection Failures
Geologists Brenda Buck and Rod Metcalf discovered naturally occurring asbestos across ~1 million acres outside Las Vegas, yet faced cease-and-desist orders from Nevada authorities. The regulatory definition of asbestos is narrow and commercial rather than health-based, meaning dangerous variants and cleavage fragments don't count. A single fiber may meet asbestos criteria on one end but not the other, creating inconsistent classification and leaving communities exposed without awareness.
9. Global Asbestos Trade and Modern Imports
Despite known dangers, asbestos mining and importation continue globally. India imported over 350,000 tons in 2019, with predictions of 6 million asbestos-related disease cases there. Many Asian countries continue large-scale imports. Asbestos cloth and products remain available for purchase from China. Asbestos does not naturally decay, so all historically mined material remains an environmental hazard indefinitely.
10. Current Regulation and Future Outlook
The U.S. finally banned chrysotile asbestos in 2024, but the ban excludes the other five regulated types, allows 12 years for phase-out, and doesn't address asbestos already in buildings or the environment. Classification and detection loopholes remain unfixed. The EPA faces renewed lawsuits. Until definitions are based on health effects rather than commercial interests and all asbestos variants are recognized, the crisis will persist.
Key People & Entities
- Henry Ward Johns
- Inventor of asbestos-based fireproofing material in 1868; founder of Johns-Manville, which became the dominant asbestos manufacturer and later orchestrated decades of health suppression.
- Nelly Kershaw
- Early asbestos factory worker whose 1924 death from asbestosis provided the first documented case of occupational asbestos disease.
- Dr. William Cook
- Pathologist who performed the autopsy of Nelly Kershaw and published the first medical description of asbestosis in 1924.
- Dr. Irving Selikoff
- Epidemiologist who exposed the epidemic of asbestos-related cancers in shipyard and factory workers through meticulous research, published 1964 conference findings despite industry opposition.
- Sumner Simpson
- President of Raybestos Manhattan; his preserved internal documents proved deliberate suppression of asbestos health hazards from the 1930s onward.
- Vandiver Brown
- Johns-Manville lawyer who coordinated with competitors to minimize asbestos publicity and control external health research findings.
- Carl Ash
- Attorney who discovered and obtained the Sumner Simpson papers, unlocking proof of industry-wide conspiracy to suppress asbestos health evidence.
- W.R. Grace
- Company operating the Libby, Montana vermiculite mine; knowingly exposed workers and community to amphibole asbestos for 30 years without warning, resulting in nearly 200 deaths.
Glossary
- Asbestosis
- A chronic lung disease caused by inhalation of asbestos fibers, resulting in lung scarring, reduced breathing capacity, and increased risk of mesothelioma and lung cancer.
- Mesothelioma
- A rare, aggressive cancer of the cells lining the chest cavity and lungs, directly associated with asbestos exposure and typically fatal within 1–2 years of diagnosis.
- Polarized Light Microscopy (PLM)
- A standard detection method for asbestos that cannot reliably detect particles smaller than 1% by weight or fibers shorter than 5 micrometers—missing the smallest, most dangerous fibers.
- Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM)
- A more sensitive detection method capable of magnifying up to 1 million times, able to identify the smallest asbestos fibers that PLM misses.
- Silica Tetrahedron
- The fundamental building block of asbestos minerals, composed of a silicon atom bonded to four oxygen atoms in a pyramid shape.
- Chrysotile
- White asbestos, a serpentine mineral forming curled sheet-like fibers; the most commonly used type, banned in the U.S. in 2024.
- Amphiboles
- A family of asbestos minerals (amosite, crocidolite, and others) forming rigid, needle-like fibers; considered more hazardous than chrysotile due to their persistence in lung tissue.
- Cleavage Fragments
- Broken pieces of asbestos fibers that regulators often exclude from 'asbestos' counts despite evidence they cause disease comparable to intact fibers.
- Macrophages
- White blood cells tasked with engulfing and digesting foreign particles; unable to digest asbestos fibers, leading to frustration and release of damaging inflammatory chemicals.
- The 1% Rule / Grace Rule
- A regulatory threshold (lobbied by W.R. Grace) below which products containing less than 1% asbestos are not regulated, creating a major detection and enforcement loophole.