Between 1930 and 1980, asbestos was used in more than 4,000 consumer products—from the fake snow in “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) to toasters, hair dryers, crayons, ironing board covers, and Kent Micronite cigarette filters. Over 3,000 Americans are diagnosed with mesothelioma every year, and the exposed often don’t develop symptoms for 20 to 50 years after their first contact with the mineral.
This season preview of Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making maps the investigative journey ahead—from Stone Age Finland (2500 BCE) through the September 11, 2001 attacks, where 400+ tons of asbestos were pulverized into lower Manhattan air.

What we’ll cover this season:
• The exposed products in your home: Asbestos exposure occurred through artificial fireplace embers, Christmas tree decorations, vermiculite garden soil (Libby, Montana), oven mitts, brake pads, and talc-based cosmetics—the FDA found asbestos contamination in Claire’s makeup products as recently as 2019

• The 1935 Sumner Simpson letter: The Raybestos-Manhattan president wrote “the less said about asbestos, the better off we are”—a document that became Exhibit A in thousands of lawsuits against Johns-Manville and the asbestos industry

• The 1943 suppressed mouse study: Dr. LeRoy Gardner at Saranac Laboratory found an 81.8% tumor rate in asbestos-exposed mice—Johns-Manville executives ordered him not to publish, and the research stayed buried until his death in 1946

• The “dropped dead” deposition: In 1984, witness Charles Roemer testified that Johns-Manville executive Lewis Brown said the company would let workers “work until they dropped dead” because “we save a lot of money that way”

• The September 11 mystery: The World Trade Center North Tower (with asbestos fireproofing on floors 1-38) stood for 102 minutes after impact; the South Tower (built after New York City’s 1970 asbestos ban, with no asbestos) collapsed in 56 minutes—and over 44,000 people have since been diagnosed with 9/11-related cancers

• The city called Asbest: A Russian city of 70,000 people sits beside the world’s largest open-pit asbestos mine (7 miles long), with cancer rates 20-40% higher than surrounding regions—and an asbestos museum as a tourist attraction

• The $30+ billion in asbestos trust funds: Exposed workers and families can file for mesothelioma compensation through bankruptcy trusts established by Johns-Manville (1986), W.R. Grace, and dozens of other manufacturers—plus VA disability benefits for the nearly 30% of mesothelioma patients who are military veterans

From Pliny the Elder documenting sick Roman slaves in the 1st century CE, to the WHO classifying all asbestos as a Group 1 carcinogen in 1977, to the EPA’s 2024 chrysotile ban (with a 12-year implementation period)—this is the story of what they knew, when they knew it, and how long they hid it.
New episodes weekly. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

RESOURCES:
→ Mesothelioma overview: https://dandell.com/mesothelioma/
→ Asbestos exposure sources: https://dandell.com/asbestos-exposure/
→ Compensation options: https://dandell.com/mesothelioma-compensation/
→ Veterans & asbestos: https://dandell.com/mesothelioma-veterans/
→ Free case evaluation: https://dandell.com/contact-us/

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.