ABSTRACT
The history of asbestos-caused disease is a long-running saga with roots as ancient as the first century; Paul Brodeur reported this history in a remarkable, influential article published in 1968. Evidence that asbestos fibers caused illness began to surface two millennia later, in the late nineteenth century. While the vast market trial of cigarettes created a public health epidemic over many years, a parallel, uncontrolled national trial emerged from the mining of asbestos and the industrial and military use of asbestos products. The health hazards of asbestos were a shared concern among many officials in the industries that produced these products as early as the 1930s—although the executives did not often share their concern with people outside the industry. A different issue, on which there has been some difference of opinion, arises with respect to the scope of an asbestos firm's duty when a family member suffers an asbestos illness because of contact with dust brought home by a worker.
