Timeline of Key Events
| 3000 BC | Earliest known uses of asbestos in Egypt and Scandinavia, according to archeological digs. |
| 50 AD | Pliny the Elder, a Roman scholar, coins the name asbestos and describes illnesses in slaves who wove the mineral into fireproof cloth. |
| 1828 | First U.S. patent for asbestos is issued. |
| 1860s | Use of asbestos in industry and construction expands dramatically. |
| 1890s | Asbestos used as a raw material in large manufacturing operations, exposing large numbers of workers to asbestos dust for the first time. |
| 1900- 1910 |
Lung disease is reported among asbestos milling and manufacturing workers. |
| 1924 | The first clear case of death due to asbestosis was published in the British Medical Journal. |
| 1931 | England adopts regulations to reduce workers' exposure to asbestos. |
| 1918 | Insurance companies begin charging higher premiums for asbestos workers or denying coverage altogether. |
| 1930 | Johns-Manville, a major asbestos company, produces an internal report about fatalities in asbestos workers. |
| 1932 | Letter from U.S. Bureau of Mines to asbestos manufacturer Eagle-Picher calls asbestos dust "one of the most dangerous dusts" known to man. |
| 1933 | Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. doctors determine that 29% of workers in a Johns-Manville plant have asbestosis. Company settles in lawsuits brought by 11 of those employees. |
| 1934 | Johns-Manville and Raybestos-Manhattan edit the report of a Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. doctor to minimize the reported danger of asbestos dust. |
| 1935 | Several asbestos companies agree to sponsor research on the health effects of asbestos dust, provided that the companies maintain complete control over disclosure of results. |
| 1942 | Internal Owens-Corning corporate memo refers to medical literature on the lung and skin hazards of asbestos. |
| 1951 | Asbestos companies remove all references to cancer before allowing publication of research they sponsor. |
| 1952 | Johns-Manville medical director Dr. Kenneth Smith recommends that warning labels be attached to products containing asbestos. His recommendation is ignored. |
| 1952- 1956 |
Kent cigarettes use crocidolite asbestos in their Micronite filter. |
| 1964 | JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, publishes a study of asbestos workers, revealing that people who work with asbestos-containing materials have a greater-than-normal incidence of asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma. |
| 1966 | First U.S. asbestos product liability lawsuit is filed in Beaumont, Texas against 11 asbestos makers. Sick worker who filed lost the case. |
| 1970 | Congress approves Clean Air Act, allowing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to begin regulating asbestos as a hazardous air pollutant. |
| 1971 | Federal court verdict against asbestos makers is the first verdict awarding damages to a worker to be upheld on appeal. |
| 1972 | Occupational Safety and Health Administration sets workplace asbestos exposure limits, which are strengthened two years later. |
| 1973 | The EPA bans spray-on asbestos insulation as an air pollution hazard. |
| 1976 | Asbestos production in the United States hits all-time high at more than 1M tons per year. |
| 1978 | In light of evidence that some asbestos companies conspired as early as 1930 to suppress knowledge of asbestos hazards, a judge rules there had been "a conscious effort" by the asbestos industry to suppress information on the dangers of asbestos in order to avoid lawsuits. |
| 1979 | EPA announces intention to ban all uses of asbestos and begins advising building owners and the industry on the handling of asbestos. |
| 1982 | Under authority of Toxic Substances Control Act, the EPA issues first regulation intended to control asbestos in schools. |
| 1982- 1989 |
New federal and state laws are enacted to protect schoolchildren and workers from asbestos in public buildings. |
| 1986 | Congress approves Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act. OSHA tightens asbestos-exposure standard. |
| 1989 | After a 10-year study, the EPA announced that it would phase out and ban almost all products containing asbestos. |
| 1991 | Federal appeals court in New Orleans overturns asbestos ban. |
| 1994 | OSHA tightens asbestos-exposure standard. |
| 1999 | Florida Supreme Court rules that Owens Corning willfully withheld information about the dangers of working with its asbestos products. |
| 2001 | The collapse of the World Trade Center twin towers in a terrorist attack unleashes a toxic cloud containing "astronomical" levels of asbestos dust. |
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