Adelaide M. Anderson, "Historical Sketch of the Development of Legislation for Injurious and Dangerous Industries in England," in Dangerous Trades (1902)

Chapter II of Dangerous Trades, a collection of essays by experts on the health hazards of industrial work, edited by Thomas Oliver and published in 1902, copied as ten double-page spreads (pages 24 to 43). The chapter, by Adelaide M. Anderson, traces English factory and mines laws from the early 1800s to the 1890s and the growth of special rules for dangerous trades. Asbestos appears once: among the most injurious processes known since ancient times, she lists "the textile processes of preparing and weaving asbestos and flax."

What it shows

By 1902 a standard British text on industrial disease counted asbestos weaving among the oldest dangerous trades. This chapter is about the law rather than medicine, and says nothing more about asbestos dust or its effects.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

Johns-Manville's own chronology of what the company knew describes this document as follows:

British designate asbestos dust as potentially injurious to workers.

Editor's note: J-M's description says the British designated asbestos dust as potentially injurious to workers. This chapter of a privately published 1902 book mentions asbestos once, listing the preparing and weaving of asbestos among long-known injurious processes; it does not record any government designation.