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11/04/02

Blazing broom in Oz'

In the classic movie "The Wizard of Oz," Cleveland native Margaret Hamilton, who portrayed Miss Gulch and her evil alter-ego the Wicked Witch of the West, wielded a burning broom made of asbestos. Although the witch later melted, her broom didn't.

You reap what you sow

Henry Ward Johns, founder of Johns-Manville, once the world's largest maker of asbestos products, died in 1898 of "dust phthisis pneumonitis," a medical euphemism for asbestosis. Citing asbestos claims, his namesake company sought bankruptcy protection from creditors in 1982. At the time, it was No. 181 on the Fortune 500 list and the richest firm ever to file a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.

Too hot to handle

American patriot, inventor and wit Benjamin Franklin carried a purse made of fire-retardant asbestos, hopeful that his money wouldn't burn a hole in his pocket. The purse is in a British museum.

Kleenex says no

During the 1960s, according to court documents, Union Carbide suggested that Kimberly-Clark would save $174,000 a year using asbestos as a softening agent for Kleenex. Kimberly-Clark, a defendant in more than 100 asbestos lawsuits, denies it used the potentially toxic fiber in facial tissues. Records show that Union Carbide, now owned by Dow Chemical, sold asbestos to other paper companies, including Georgia-Pacific Corp., Scott Paper Co. and Weyerhaeuser.

Asbestos Man vs. Torch

In 1939 at the World's Fair in New York, Johns-Manville sponsored a pavilion that featured a giant Asbestos Man who touted the wonders of the miracle mineral and its "service to humanity." A more sinister version of Asbestos Man appeared in comic books in the early 1960s. He dueled the Human Torch, one of the Fantastic Four superheros. Asbestos Man was immune to the Torch's flame but eventually died of asbestosis, chronic scarring of the lungs.

Ban proposed

In June, Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, proposed legislation to ban asbestos, which is regulated but still legal in the United States. Her bill mirrored regulations imposed in 1989 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency but overturned on appeal by a federal court. The fibers are still used in roofing products, gaskets and brake pads.

WW II workhorse

Asbestos use in the United States grew exponentially during World War II, spurred by the military, which insulated and coated boilers, turbines and pipes of its burgeoning Navy fleet with the material because it could withstand high temperatures and corrosion. The fleet grew from about 400 vessels in 1939 to 6,700 in 1945.

World Trade Center cough'

Doctors are monitoring rescue workers and survivors of the terror attacks in New York for a respiratory ailment that has developed from breathing the toxin-laden air near Ground Zero. When the 110-story, twin towers disintegrated, their collapse kicked up clouds of lung-piercing, microscopic fragments of glass and asbestos, which served as a fire retardant on lower-level steel beams. The ailment is known as the "World Trade Center cough."