ASBESTOS GEEK PIC OF THE WEEK June 27, 2024

A weekly post featuring pictures of asbestos-related artifacts from the private collection of Andy Rowland, CIH – Principal at IMPRIMIS Forensic Health & Safety.

This week’s picture features an Everest sign promoting their line of Asbestos-containing Cementitious Products (See Photo #1).? After holding onto it for several years, I decided to frame it for display.? It hangs above my desk these days.? It certainly shows its age a bit, but on the good side it has no bullet holes.

On its face, the sign does not seem like much, but it represents a small part of a complex and expansive story.? It is the story of one of the? most popular and effective construction materials of the last 150 years, but to tell the story we have to go back to a time that predates Everest Asbestos – Cement Products in India.

So, this is where you might expect me to specifically refer to this material (in all of its hundreds of forms) by its name.? Well, the correct name would depend upon where you find yourself on the globe.? If you hail from Sidney, you may know it as Wunderlich or maybe Fibro.? If you spent your career in Mumbai you may call it Eternit.? If you are a Manchester United fan you probably refer to it as Trafford Tile.? If you come from my neck of the woods (Charleston, S.C.) you have heard it called Transite or Marinite.? Because this family of products was made on just about every continent, and several people claim to have invented it; it is known in many languages by many names.

Formulating and perfecting these wildly popular final products required decades of time, one English stone mason, one Austrian brewmaster, and many other impressive innovators.?

One common pathway/timeline goes as follows:

?1824 – An English stone mason by the name of Joseph Aspdin was awarded a patent for Portland Cement.

?1900 – An Austrian brewmaster and industrial specialist known as Ludwig Hatschek was awarded a patent for the process to manufacture asbestos-containing cement slabs or panels

?1903 – Hatschek brands his line of products as Eternit.

?1929 – Johns Manville brands its line of asbestos-containing cement products as Transite.

So, where does this week’s pic and the company that it represents fit into the picture?

The company known as Asbestos Cement Ltd. was founded in 1934 in the city of Nashik (nee Nasik) about 160 km (100 miles) northeast of Mumbai.? As the name implies, the firm specialized in producing cementitious asbestos-containing building products.? The name was later changed to Everest Industries Ltd. By 1983, the company had extended its product line a great deal and changed its name to Eternit Everest Ltd..? By adding the term Eternit to the title, they had worked their way back to Hatschek, our Austrian brewmaster, where many say it all started.

Here are just a few other uses of asbestos-containing cement…

Imprimis FHS, LLC – Specializing in Expert Witness Services in the field of Environmental Health & Safety.? [email protected]?? (843) 209-2951.