Johns-Mansville was a massive company that produced asbestos and kept it’s health effects a secret in the 1930’s. At that time they knew that asbestosis was caused by asbestos, but weren’t fully aware of the potential of its poison. They suppressed the discoveries about it throughout the entire process of it’s dangers being exposed. They especially covered up the official discovery in a lab of it causing cancer in 1943. However they were soon exposed themselves and from 1950 on where bombarded with lawsuits, eventually becoming bankrupt. There was such a rebellion against them that half the people who filed lawsuits against them had false claims or didn’t even have an extreme problem.
Originally they where a company in Colorado that manufactured building materials, especially asbestos, which they really had their livelihood wrapped up in. This was because they invested a lot selling materials using asbestos. It was such an incredible material, they couldn’t resist incorporating it into everything, which got them in big trouble when it started to be known as dangerous. They became bankrupt from all the lawsuits, so had to reorganize themselves in the late 80’s. You would think after this, and the complete banning of it in several countries, that the world would have learned. But no, there are still several large counties that produce and use it. One of them being, of course, Russia. They produced 1 million tones of it in 2008, way more than any other country. They even have an entire city named Asbest, dedicated to producing asbestos. However, it’s known as a dying city, since literally everyone is dying from asbestos.
China is the next largest country producing massive quantities of asbestos, however they haven’t even reached half of what Russia produces. They use it for literally everything it’s been used for in the past, and more. Even thought they don’t have actual data showing the health risks, it has been obvious that they’re cancer rates are going up from it.
Brazil is another surprising one, being the third largest. However they’re government voted to ban it a few years ago. Unfortunately, because of asbestos, and despite of them banning it, they believe deaths related to asbestos will continue to go up.
Colombia is another one that finally banned it, but still where on the top of the list producing it. They are still in a transition stage of banning it, and have many construction materials containing asbestos. However they keep extending this “transition period.”
The United Kingdom stopped everything having to do with asbestos long ago, but are still suffering from the effects of it. The death rate from mesothelioma has increased into the thousands.