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Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making

Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making

著者： AsbestosPodcast.com
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They knew. They always knew.


Nearly 2,000 years ago, Roman historian Pliny the Elder documented asbestos workers dying from "sickness of the lungs"—watching slaves fashion crude respirators from animal bladders while weaving what he called "funeral dress for kings." The people closest to the dust understood the danger. The people farthest away admired the spectacle, collected the profits, and buried the evidence. That pattern never changed.


Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making traces humanity's 4,500-year relationship with the mineral the ancient Greeks named "asbestos"—meaning indestructible. From Stone Age Finnish pottery (2500 BCE) to the $70+ billion in legal damages paid by modern corporations, we uncover how a material praised for safety became a source of sickness, litigation, and grief.


Each episode explores:


  • Ancient origins: The salamander myth that persisted for 2,000 years, the Roman tablecloths that cleaned themselves in fire, the sacred flames kept burning with asbestos wicks


  • The industrial cover-up: Internal documents proving companies knew asbestos caused cancer since the 1930s—and suppressed the evidence for 40 years


  • Modern consequences: Why mesothelioma claims 3,000 American lives annually, and why $30+ billion sits in asbestos trust funds waiting for victims who never file


  • The science of denial: How manufactured doubt delayed regulation for decades, using the same tactics as the tobacco industry—sometimes with the same scientists


Whether you're a history enthusiast, legal professional, medical researcher, or someone seeking answers after asbestos exposure, this podcast reveals the uncomfortable truth: the longest-running industrial cover-up in human history isn't ancient history. It's still happening.


The History of Asbestos Podcast is sponsored by Danziger & De Llano, a nationwide mesothelioma law firm with over 30 years of experience and nearly $2 billion recovered for asbestos victims.


If you or a loved one has mesothelioma, visit Dandell.com for a free consultation.

© 2025 Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making
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  • The First Victims? The Pliny Mistranslation That Fooled Scholars for a Century

    The First Victims? The Pliny Mistranslation That Fooled Scholars for a Century
    2025/12/15

    Did ancient Romans know asbestos was dangerous? The widely-cited "proof"—Pliny the Elder's passage about workers wearing bladder-skin masks—is a mistranslation.

    The passage appears in Natural History Book 33, Chapter 40, which discusses cinnabar (mercury sulfide) workers, not asbestos. Scholars Browne and Murray documented this correction in The Lancet in 1990, yet the myth persists in textbooks, litigation documents, and Wikipedia. This episode examines why ancient observers couldn't have connected asbestos to disease: mesothelioma's 20-50 year latency period exceeded Roman life expectancy of 25-40 years for laborers.

    In this episode:

    • The famous "bladder-mask" quote and its century-long misattribution to asbestos workers
    • Why Pliny's Natural History Book 33 describes mercury poisoning, not asbestos exposure
    • Strabo's "sickness of the lungs" passage: another misattribution (arsenic mines in Pontus, not asbestos)
    • The latency problem: 20-50 years for mesothelioma vs. 25-40 year ancient lifespans
    • What we know about slave labor in ancient asbestos production
    • Why the absence of ancient documentation isn't a cover-up—it's the limits of observation

    Who this episode is for: History enthusiasts, researchers investigating asbestos exposure claims, and anyone who has encountered the claim that "the Romans knew asbestos was deadly 2,000 years ago."

    Sources cited: Pliny the Elder's Natural History (c. 77 CE), Strabo's Geography (c. 20 CE), Browne & Murray's "Asbestos and the Romans" (The Lancet, 1990), Bianchi & Bianchi (La Medicina del lavoro, 2015).

    Resources:

    • What Is Mesothelioma? — Learn about symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment options
    • Mesothelioma Latency Period — Why symptoms appear 20-50 years after exposure
    • Asbestos Exposure History — Common exposure sources and occupations at risk
    • Meet Our Team — Paul Danziger, Dave Foster, Anna Jackson, and the patient advocacy team
    • Free Consultation — Talk to someone who understands what you're facing

    Learn more: Dandell.com

    Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making is produced by Danziger & De Llano, a nationwide mesothelioma law firm with over 30 years of experience and nearly $2 billion recovered for asbestos victims. This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For a free consultation, visit Dandell.com.


    Resources:

    → Mesothelioma legal rights: https://dandell.com/mesothelioma/

    → Asbestos exposure sources: https://dandell.com/asbestos-exposure/

    → Asbestos trust funds ($30B+ available): https://dandell.com/asbestos-trust-funds/

    → Free case evaluation: https://dandell.com/contact/

    Sister Podcast - MESO: The Mesothelioma Podcast:

    http://mesotheliomapodcast.com/
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    10 分
  • Sacred Fire — When Asbestos Became Divine

    Sacred Fire — When Asbestos Became Divine
    2025/12/12

    Around 400 BCE, the sculptor Callimachus—nicknamed "katatêxitechnos" (the perfectionist) by the Athenians—created a golden lamp for the Erechtheion temple in Athens that burned continuously before the statue of Athena. The secret: an asbestos wick that never consumed itself. Oil refills were required only once per year. This is one of the earliest verified uses of asbestos technology, documented in the primary source account of Greek traveler Pausanias (c. 150 CE).

    In this episode, we examine the verified historical record of asbestos in the ancient Mediterranean—and separate fact from persistent myth.

    Topics covered:

    • Pausanias's firsthand account of the golden lamp of Athena in his Description of Greece (Book 1.26.6–7)
    • Why the claim that Vestal Virgins used asbestos wicks has no primary source evidence—Plutarch's Life of Numa describes wood, oil, and incense instead
    • "Linum vivum" (live linen): Pliny the Elder's account of asbestos napkins fire-cleaned at Roman banquets (Natural History, c. 77 CE)
    • Dioscorides' De Materia Medica (c. 50-70 CE): reusable napkins sold to theater patrons, fire-cleaned between performances, and resold the next night
    • Strabo's independent confirmation of fire-cleaned towels from Karystos, Greece (Geography, Book X)
    • Royal funeral shrouds: how asbestos cloth preserved cremation ashes separate from the pyre
    • Pliny's valuation: asbestos cloth "equals the prices of exceptional pearls"cover

    Who this episode is for: Anyone researching the ancient history of asbestos, the Vestal Virgin eternal flame, Pliny the Elder's writings on minerals, Dioscorides' De Materia Medica, or the use of asbestos in Greek and Roman religious practice.

    Sources cited:

    • Pausanias, Description of Greece (c. 150 CE)
    • Pliny the Elder, Natural History (c. 77 CE)
    • Dioscorides, De Materia Medica (c. 50-70 CE)
    • Strabo, Geography (c. 1st century BCE/CE)
    • Plutarch, Life of Numa
    • Vitruvius, De Architectura (Callimachus nickname source)
    • Loeb Classical Library scholarly annotations

    Next episode preview: The "sickness of the lungs" passage everyone cites—and why it may not be about asbestos at all. What Pliny actually wrote, and the mistranslation that persisted for over a century.


    Resources

    • Learn more about asbestos-related diseases: Dandell.com
    • Mesothelioma legal resources: Dandell.com/mesothelioma
    • Asbestos exposure sources: Dandell.com/asbestos-exposure

    Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making is produced by Danziger & De Llano, a nationwide mesothelioma law firm with over 30 years of experience and nearly $2 billion recovered for asbestos victims. This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For a free consultation, visit Dandell.com.


    Resources:

    → Mesothelioma legal rights: https://dandell.com/mesothelioma/

    → Asbestos exposure sources: https://dandell.com/asbestos-exposure/

    → Asbestos trust funds ($30B+ available): https://dandell.com/asbestos-trust-funds/

    → Free case evaluation: https://dandell.com/contact/

    Sister Podcast - MESO: The Mesothelioma Podcast:

    http://mesotheliomapodcast.com/
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    10 分
  • Discovery & Wonder—The 7,000-Year Origin Story They Got Wrong

    Discovery & Wonder—The 7,000-Year Origin Story They Got Wrong
    2025/12/11

    Archaeological evidence from Finnish Neolithic sites pushes the first known human use of asbestos back to 4700–5000 BCE—nearly two thousand years earlier than commonly cited, and predating both the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge.

    In Episode 2 of Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making, we separate archaeological fact from historical myth—correcting widespread misconceptions about ancient asbestos while tracing its journey from Stone Age pottery to medieval legend.

    5 Ancient Asbestos Myths Exposed in This Episode:

    1. The origin date is wrong by 2,000 years — Peer-reviewed archaeology from Lake Saimaa, Finland reveals asbestos-tempered pottery dated to 4700–5000 BCE, not the commonly cited 2500 BCE. These vessels contained 50–90% mineral fiber content.
    2. Egyptian pharaohs were NOT wrapped in asbestos — Despite appearing in countless histories, zero archaeological evidence supports asbestos mummy wrappings. Biomolecular analyses confirm linen from flax plants, not mineral fibers.
    3. The salamander myth was a medieval invention — The Letter of Prester John (c. 1165), a famous forgery, introduced the false claim that asbestos was "salamander wool." This myth persisted 500+ years despite Marco Polo debunking it in 1280.
    4. "Asbestos" is technically the wrong word — The original Greek term was "amiantos" (meaning "undefiled"). "Asbestos" (meaning "unquenchable") originally described quicklime—Pliny the Elder's mistranslation stuck for 2,000 years.
    5. Benjamin Franklin perpetuated the salamander myth in the 1720s — Even during the Enlightenment, Franklin sold "salamander cotton" purses in London. Sir Thomas Browne's 1642 Pseudodoxia Epidemica had debunked the myth 80 years earlier.

    Why Asbestos History Matters for Mesothelioma Families:

    • 3,000 Americans are diagnosed with mesothelioma annually — Understanding mesothelioma diagnosis and legal options
    • 20–50 year latency period between asbestos exposure and diagnosis — Common asbestos exposure sources by occupation
    • $30+ billion available in asbestos trust funds for victims — How to file asbestos trust fund claims
    • 30 years of experience and nearly $2 billion recovered — Danziger & De Llano represents mesothelioma families nationwide — Free case evaluation

    About This Series:

    Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making traces the complete history—from ancient wonder material to the largest corporate cover-up in American history. Subscribe to follow the full story.

    Companion Podcast: MESO: The Mesothelioma Podcast — Medical guidance, legal rights,

    Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making is sponsored by Danziger & De Llano, a nationwide mesothelioma law firm with over 30 years of experience and nearly $2 billion recovered for asbestos victims. If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, visit https://dandell.com/ for a free consultation.


    Resources:

    → Mesothelioma legal rights: https://dandell.com/mesothelioma/

    → Asbestos exposure sources: https://dandell.com/asbestos-exposure/

    → Asbestos trust funds ($30B+ available): https://dandell.com/asbestos-trust-funds/

    → Free case evaluation: https://dandell.com/contact/

    → Companion podcast—MESO: The Mesothelioma Podcast: https://dandell.com/podcast/
    続きを読む 一部表示
    10 分
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