Asbestos and Fire: Technological Tradeoffs and the Body at Risk
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.51 (799 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0813564727 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 272 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2016-12-05 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
For much of the industrial era, asbestos was a widely acclaimed benchmark material. She suggests that the very success of asbestos and other fire-prevention technologies in containing deadly blazes has led to a sort of historical amnesia about the very risks they were supposed to reduce. Asbestos and Fire is not only the most thoroughly researched and balanced look at the history of asbestos, it is also an important contribution to a larger debate that considers how the risks of technological solutions should be evaluated. As technology offers us ever-increasing opportunities to protect and prevent, Maines urges that learning to accept and effectively address the unintended consequences of technological innovations is a growing part of our collective responsibility. . It was used in virtually every industry from hotel keeping to military technology to chemical manufacturing, and was integral to building construction from shacks to skyscrapers in every community across the Unit
"Asbestos and Fire adds a highly useful volume to the growing shelf of books that tell the 'life story' of industrial materials that build, support, and also sometimes imperil modern life."
A Mini-Encyclopedia on Asbestos and Fire Retardation: OLA Fire Highlighted Jan Peczkis This modest-sized book contains much information on the history, properties, manufacture, and value of asbestos. There are some quaint photos, such as that of an asbestos-based fallout shelter, and that of "giant candle snuffers" used effectively by British firefighters during WWII against German magnesium-thermite incendiary bombs. Statistics are provided on the production of asbestos as well as the hundreds of everyday items that contain asbestos.The Our Lady of the Angels School Fire (pp. 127-131) is instructive. The lack of sprinklers and the prevalence of wooden-interior trim were bad enough, but so were the