Historical Lexicon Definitions: Industry, Regulation, and Asbestos Legacy
This section defines key historical terms related to the development, use, and eventual regulation of asbestos. These entries cover geological terms, corporate history, regulatory frameworks, and influential figures and events. They provide essential background for understanding how asbestos shaped industrial growth, public health crises, and modern legal responses.
Historical & Regulatory Frameworks
How Asbestos Was Regulated — and How It Wasn’t This category traces the evolution of legal and regulatory structures surrounding asbestos — from early worker compensation acts to modern safety standards. It explores how industrial influence, medical knowledge, and litigation shaped the rules (and loopholes) that governed asbestos use. Understanding this framework reveals how regulation often lagged behind risk.
The following 1 Lexicon entry are assigned to this category:
Merchant Marine Act of 1920 — The Merchant Marine Act of 1920, or Jones Act, allows maritime workers to sue employers for asbestos-related injuries due to negligence or unseaworthiness.
Mineralogy & Material Properties
The Science of Asbestos Minerals and Their Industrial Properties This category focuses on the physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics that made asbestos commercially valuable — and medically dangerous. From fiber size and crystal structure to chemical inertia and asbestiform habit, these entries help explain why asbestos was so widely used and how its microscopic properties contribute to its toxicity. Understanding these traits is crucial for assessing exposure risks and designing safer materials.
The following 36 Lexicon entries are assigned to this category:
Amphibole Group — A group of silicate minerals including several types of asbestos, known for their fibrous structure.
Asbestiform — A mineralogical term describing fibrous minerals that have a habit similar to asbestos.
Aspect Ratio (Length-to-diameter ratio) — The aspect ratio of asbestos fibers is the ratio of their length to their diameter, critical for assessing health hazards.
Bituminous — Bituminous refers to coal or asphalt with a high bitumen content, sometimes used with asbestos in products like roofing.
Cavitation — Cavitation is the formation of vapor bubbles in a liquid due to a decrease in pressure, relevant in the flow of fluids around asbestos fibers.
Chemical Inertia — The property of a substance to remain unchanged when exposed to chemical reactions or environments.
Cleavage Fragments — Particles resulting from the breaking of a mineral along its planes of weakness, resembling asbestos fibers but differing in origin and properties.
Cleaving — The act of splitting or dividing a mineral along its natural planes of weakness.
Crystal Morphology — The study of the external shape and structure of crystals, used to identify asbestos minerals.
Crystal Structure — The ordered arrangement of atoms or molecules within a mineral, determining its properties.
Crystalline — Describes a solid material composed of a regular, repeating pattern of atoms or molecules forming a crystal lattice.
Fibril — A small threadlike structure, often referring to the microscopic fibers that make up asbestos minerals.
Fibril Structure — The arrangement of tiny thread-like fibers that make up the structure of asbestos minerals.
Flexibility — The ability of a material to bend without breaking, a key property of asbestos fibers.
Friable — A material that can be easily crumbled, pulverized, or reduced to powder by hand pressure.
Gilsonite — Gilsonite is a solid hydrocarbon resin used in industrial materials, sometimes in conjunction with asbestos-containing products.
Grunerite — Grunerite is a silicate mineral in the amphibole group that can contain asbestos fibers.
Hardness (Mohs Scale) — A measure of the scratch resistance of a material, ranging from 1 (softest) to 10 (hardest).
Host Matrix — The geological material or rock in which asbestos fibers are embedded or from which they are extracted.
Incombustibility — The property of a material that does not burn or ignite when exposed to fire or high temperatures.
Luster — The way a mineral reflects light, ranging from metallic to non-metallic appearances.
Mineral Fiber — A type of fiber derived from minerals, including asbestos, used in industrial applications.
Polycrystalline — Composed of many small crystals fused together.
Polytypes — Different structural forms of a mineral with the same chemical composition but different atomic arrangements.
Refractive Index — The ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum to the speed of light in a material, used to identify asbestos fibers.
Riebeckite — Riebeckite is a sodium-rich amphibole mineral that can contain asbestos fibers when crystallized in the asbestiform habit, known as crocidolite.
Serpentine Group — A group of minerals including chrysotile, the most common type of asbestos.
Silicate Minerals — Silicate minerals are a group of minerals containing silicon and oxygen, significant because asbestos is a type of silicate mineral.
Single Crystal — A solid material with a continuous and unbroken crystal lattice, used to study asbestos properties.
Specific Gravity — The ratio of the density of a substance to the density of a reference substance, typically water.
Tailings — The residual materials left after the extraction of valuable minerals from ore.
Tensile Strength — The maximum tensile stress a material can withstand before breaking.
Thermal Stability — The ability of a material to maintain its properties at high temperatures.
Twinned Crystal — A crystal structure where two or more individual crystals share a common lattice, resulting in a symmetrical intergrowth.
Ultramafic Rocks — Igneous and metamorphic rocks with very low silica content and high levels of iron and magnesium, often containing asbestos minerals.
Vitreous — Describing a material that has a glass-like appearance and texture, often used to characterize the nature of certain asbestos fibers.
Notable Individuals
Key People in the History of Asbestos This category highlights the scientists, executives, physicians, whistleblowers, and attorneys whose actions shaped the history of asbestos use, regulation, and litigation. These profiles provide context for how asbestos gained widespread use, how its dangers were discovered, and who played pivotal roles in exposing the truth or covering it up.
Historical Events & Milestones
Key Moments in the History of Asbestos Use and Awareness This category covers the major turning points in the asbestos timeline — from early industrial adoption and medical discoveries to government interventions and landmark legal cases. These events provide essential context for how asbestos became both a miracle material and a global public health crisis, and why its legacy continues to shape modern regulation and litigation.
Significant Locations
Asbestos Hotspots Around the World This category explores geographic locations tied to the history of asbestos — including mines, industrial towns, shipyards, and known contamination sites. These places often serve as case studies for exposure, illness clusters, environmental remediation, and litigation. They’re essential to mapping how asbestos spread from local hazards to global crises.
Major Organizations & Entities
Institutions That Shaped the Asbestos Story This category focuses on the companies, trade groups, medical institutions, and government bodies that played major roles in the history of asbestos production, research, and regulation. From Johns-Manville to NIOSH, understanding the actions of these organizations helps contextualize how asbestos risks were managed — or mismanaged — on a systemic level.
The following 1 Lexicon entry are assigned to this category:
NIOSH — NIOSH is a federal agency that researches and makes recommendations for preventing work-related injury and illness, including asbestos exposure.
Corporate Conduct & Industry Practices
Corporate Behavior in the Asbestos Industry This category investigates how companies handled asbestos production, warnings, risk management, and internal communication. Topics include document suppression, marketing practices, and the balance between profit and worker safety. These entries are essential for understanding how corporate decisions contributed to widespread exposure — and liability.
Key Documents & Records
The Paper Trail Behind the Asbestos Industry This category highlights the internal memos, government filings, depositions, lab reports, and other critical documents that shape asbestos litigation. These records often provide the “smoking gun” — proving what companies knew, when they knew it, and what they did or didn’t do in response. They're foundational in building strong legal claims.
Looking for other categories? Visit the Lexicon Index to browse all 30 categories by topic.