Asbestos, a mineral that occurs naturally, and its uses were originally discovered by Greeks. The term asbestos is drawn from an adjective in Greek language that means inextinguishable. Initially asbestos uses were limited to making fireproof cloths that could be easily cleaned by just tossing them into the fire whenever they got dirty. During the industrial revolution in 1860’s, because of good insulating properties of asbestos, it was used as an insulating agent in various applications and products made by US and Canada. As the time passed by other proprieties of asbestos apart from being heat resistant were also discovered. Properties like resistant to chemical reactions, strong, long-lasting, flexible and corrosion resistant made it very popular during the 1900’s and several industries started to discover the different uses of asbestos.
             As the knowledge and understanding of different uses of asbestos increased, so does it commercial production. Many industries like shipping, automobile, construction and others uses asbestos for various purposes. Construction industry uses asbestos for different building products like door lining, paints, floor tiles, flooring sheets, putties, mastics, plaster, spray coatings, fireproofing, roofs, asbestos cement, pipes, water tanks, floors, walls, etc. It also uses asbestos in the rooms as sound and heat insulator. Automobile industry like the construction industry also uses large number of products are made up of asbestos like break pads, gaskets, clutch pipes and many other products that need protection from heat. Firefighters also use number of items that are manufactured using asbestos because of its fire resistant properties. Other products where asbestos is used in manufacturing include office filling cabinets, packaging materials, shaft linings of lifts, linings of ventilation, school blackboards and fire safe furniture. Uses of asbestos are many and most industries that used asbestos for manufacturing products made fortunes, but the time came when the harmful effects of using asbestos for manufacturing products were brought into common knowledge.              The period corresponding to World War II saw an unprecedented growth in demand of the products that were made from asbestos, resulting in the enormous growth of industries associated with it. The businesses across the world selling asbestos related products gained tremendously all through 1950’s till late 1980’s. It was during 1980’s when the industries that used asbestos for making their products started recognizing harmful effects of asbestos use. Even though the harmful effects of asbestos were found out very early, it was not until the late 1990’s the steps were taken to regularize its use. That is when many governments realized that uses of asbestos do cause deadly effects on humans.
             Governments throughout the world and the regulatory agencies have found that not only working in environments where the asbestos is used to make products but also using asbestos products over a prolonged period may cause serious health issues. Asbestos or related product uses over a short period of time may not cause any immediate effect on health but if someone is exposed to it for longer duration it may cause life threatening diseases like lung cancer and mesothelioma. Mesothelioma, in particular, is considered to be most dangerous among the other harmful health effects caused by asbestos. As it is not easy to detect it in early stages and when detected late, that is in advance stages it is not curable. Therefore many experts from all around the world advise avoiding products that are made up of asbestos.