Asbestos house siding, pipe insulation, floor and ceiling tiling was widely used in commercial buildings and regular homes between the 1920 and up until the 1980s. Nowadays, we still see a lot of older homes with this form of siding throughout the USA and Canada.
Asbestos products are made of two main components, cement and asbestos, and it comes in a broad variety of shapes, forms, profiles and textures. The reason why asbestos was mixed into the cement was its outstanding excellent thermal properties - asbestos is known for being extremely resistant to heat and fire - along with its flexibility and strength. This made it a perfect material for all kind of insulation purposes.
And on top of that, in my humble opinion, this is probably the main reason why it was so liberally used: asbestos was easily accessible and therefore cheap to manufacture.
But in the mid 80s, the medical community vehemently alarmed government officials as well as the public, of the rising number of newly diagnosed patients with asbestos induced diseases, such as mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis. All three illnesses have one common denominator, which is there long latency period. They may lie dormant for many years or decades before manifesting in first signs and symptoms. That makes their detection very difficult. By the time a patient will be conclusively diagnosed, the diseases have often already advanced to a later stage, which makes their treatment rather difficult and their outlook rather poor.
(Asbestos Siding Picture)
(Asbestos Tile Picture)
(Asbestos Ceiling Tile Picture)
(Asbestos Insulation Picture)
