Encyclopedia of Global Resources part 11 provides a wide variety of perspectives on both traditional and more recent views of Earth's resources. It serves as a bridge connecting the domains of resource exploitation, environmentalism, geology, and biology, and it explains their interrelationships in terms that students and other nonspecialists can understand. The articles in this set are extremely diverse, with articles covering soil, fisheries, forests, aluminum, the Industrial Revolution, the . Department of the Interior, the hydrologic cycle, glass, and placer mineral deposits. . | 70 Asbestos Global Resources with other fibers and spun or milled into cloth. The shorter or nonspinning fibers are generally made into compressed molded or cast products such as asbestos pipe and sheet in which the fibers are added to a binder such as portland cement or plastic. Such products account for most of the asbestos produced each year. Of the six different minerals that have been produced as asbestos only crocidolite and amosite have been produced in important quantities. Production of anthophyllite tremolite and actinolite has been extremely limited and was nonexistent by the end of the twentieth centur y. Uses of Asbestos Although the individual properties of asbestos minerals differ from one another they share to var ying degrees several properties that make them useful and cost-effective. These include nonflammability great resistance to heat and acid attack high tensile strength and flexibility low electrical conductivity resistance to friction and a fibrous habit. Over a span of only a few years the public s view of asbestos changed dramatically Once considered a useful commodity asbestos became known as an extremely dangerous material. The change began with . End Uses of Asbestos 1977 vs. 2003 Metric Tons End Use 1977 2003 Cement pipe 145 000 Cement sheet 139 500 Coatings compounds 32 500 1 170 Flooring products 140 000 Friction products 83 100 Insulation electrical 3 360 Insulation thermal 15 000 Packing gaskets 25 100 Paper products 22 100 Plastics 7 260 Roofing products 57 500 2 800 Textiles 8 800 Other 30 200 677 Source Data from the . Geological Survey. Note . mining of asbestos ended in 2002. passage of the Clean Air Act 1972 which classified asbestos as a carcinogenic material because studies of workers exposed to high concentrations of asbestos dust for many years showed a high incidence of asbestosis a lung disease that decreases the ability to breathe and mesothelioma a cancer of the lungs. Then in 1973 a lawsuit against a number
