Confront Series One: Asbestos. Investigating the asbestos industry and its harms.

Confront investigates systemic industrial harm. 

We do this by picking one industry, and then creating a series of original stories and analyses exploring its harms in different communities worldwide. 

We started with asbestos, a naturally occurring mineral that was widely mined in the 20th century. It’s strong, resistant to heat, fire, chemical and biological degradation, and can be found in thousands of products. Asbestos dust, however, is extremely dangerous and has been known to kill people for over 100 years. 

Why did we choose to investigate asbestos? 

It’s been banned in over 65 countries and, for some, is considered a relic of the past. 

But that’s not the full picture. 

Asbestos exposure is the leading occupational killer in many countries, with an annual death toll of over 200,000 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation. 

Moreover, for many, the asbestos ‘story’ isn’t widely known. That is, major asbestos companies knew by the 1920s that asbestos dust caused asbestosis, a potentially fatal lung disease. Then, in the 1940s, companies learned that asbestos can cause lung cancer. 

More was to follow. By 1960, the industry knew that asbestos causes another type of cancer, mesothelioma, and by 1965, that those indirectly exposed to asbestos, such as residents living near factories or family members of asbestos miners, were also dying from asbestos diseases. 

But a rising awareness of asbestos’s dangers did not lead to a decline in production. On the contrary, asbestos production spiked. Sixty per cent of asbestos mined in the 20th century was between 1970 and 1999, with a peak in 1977, according to the United States Geological Survey. As companies learned more about the risks of asbestos exposure, they chose to deploy strategies to discredit and undermine those groups sounding the alarm. 

This process continues today, as the asbestos industry survives in countries where a majority of the world’s population lives: China, Russia, India, and Indonesia, among others, all of which still permit asbestos production. Once again, the harms of asbestos in these countries are downplayed, if not outright denied. 

Even where asbestos has been banned for many years in countries including Australia, South Africa, and the UK, the risk to life remains. 

Millions of tonnes of asbestos still reside in homes, schools, public buildings, or in dumps. As time passes, these asbestos products are degrading, creating new risks and huge expenses for their safe removal, as even brief exposures to asbestos dust can prove fatal. 

Beyond asbestos

The actions and impact of the asbestos industry does not exist in a vacuum. It sits as part of a broader issue, and one of the most pressing questions of our time. That is, what happens when strong evidence of significant harm emerges that threatens a global industry?

The collective consequences of the fossil fuel, tobacco, and pesticide industries are transforming the planet and have already led to countless deaths and environmental destruction. 

Meanwhile, politicians, executives, and civil society are debating the risks and possibilities of complex new technologies like social media platforms, cryptocurrencies, and artificial intelligence models.

Our asbestos series reflects on the extensive foreseeable and unforeseeable consequences a simple mineral like asbestos can have, if it is controlled in the interests of the few.