Our understanding that asbestos causes disease didn't arrive all at once. It built up over centuries, and this category collects the moments that mattered, from ancient observations to modern clinical trials.
Pliny the Elder noted sickness in the slaves who wove asbestos cloth almost two thousand years ago. The modern record starts later, with Wagner's 1960 study linking a rare cancer to blue asbestos in South Africa, and Irving Selikoff's studies of insulation workers in the 1960s that made the danger impossible to ignore. Labor history sits here too, including the Asbestos Strike of 1949.
More recent entries track the treatment side. Trials like CheckMate 743 and CONFIRM tested therapies for mesothelioma, shaping the options an oncologist may discuss today. You'll also find regulatory turning points, such as Corrosion Proof Fittings v. EPA, the case that struck down the EPA's attempt to ban asbestos. Every term below links to a full plain-language definition.
Terms in this category
- Asbestos Strike of 1949The Asbestos Strike of 1949 was a four-month work stoppage by roughly 5,000 miners and millers against the Ca…
- CheckMate 743CheckMate 743 was a large international clinical trial that compared the combination of two immunotherapy dru…
- CONFIRM TrialThe CONFIRM Trial (Cancer Research UK NivOlumab vs placebo For Relapsed Mesothelioma) was a UK-based, randomi…
- Cor Pulmonale Before Age 12Cor pulmonale is right-sided heart failure caused by long-standing lung disease that strains the heart. "Befo…
- Corrosion Proof Fittings v. EPACorrosion Proof Fittings v. EPA is a 1991 federal appeals court decision that struck down most of the EPA's 1…
- Duluth Water SupplyThe Duluth Water Supply refers to the municipal drinking water system serving Duluth, Minnesota, which was fo…
- EMPHACIS TrialThe EMPHACIS trial (Evaluation of MTA in Mesothelioma in a Phase III Study with Cisplatin) was a landmark int…
- IND.227 TrialIND.227 was an international randomized phase II/III clinical trial that tested whether adding the immunother…
- Linum vivumLinum vivum is a Latin phrase meaning "living flax," used by Roman and later medieval writers to describe asb…
- MARS 2 TrialThe MARS 2 Trial (Mesothelioma and Radical Surgery 2) was a UK-based randomized clinical trial that compared …
- Monticello II ConferenceMonticello II was a 1989 scientific conference (the second in a series held in Monticello, Minnesota) that br…
- Pliny the ElderPliny the Elder (23–79 CE) was a Roman naturalist whose encyclopedia *Naturalis Historia* described a sicknes…
- Quiet Revolution"Quiet Revolution" refers to the gradual, largely unpublicized shift inside the asbestos industry during the …
- S.S. Morro CastleThe S.S. Morro Castle was an American ocean liner that caught fire off the New Jersey coast on September 8, 1…
- SäulenspathSäulenspath is an archaic German mineralogical name meaning "column spar," historically used in 18th- and 19t…
- Selikoff StudiesThe Selikoff studies are the research on asbestos insulation workers led by Dr. Irving J. Selikoff of Mount S…
- von Kobell, FranzFranz von Kobell (1803–1882) was a German mineralogist at the University of Munich who described and named se…
- Wagner 1960 StudyThe Wagner 1960 study was a landmark medical report that established the link between asbestos exposure and m…
- Washington Naval TreatyThe Washington Naval Treaty was a 1922 arms-limitation agreement among the United States, United Kingdom, Jap…
Terms in this category
Browse the full Lexicon, or talk it through with a member of our litigation team, not a screener, at 833-4-ASBESTOS.