At one time, doctors would tell pregnant mothers to smoke cigarettes during labour to calm them down and relieve stress. Now, we wouldn’t dream of sharing such advice, especially since cigarettes kill more than seven million people annually.

But, that kind of information just goes to show how long research can take to establish. We may think a new product or service is the best thing since sliced bread, but it can end up killing us. Asbestos is proof of that.

Asbestos is a natural mineral that was thought to be the next best thing. It was lightweight, fireproof, and affordable, which made it desirable for a myriad of different products. It was also thought to be one of the latest and greatest building materials – something that homeowners are paying the price for now. More and more people are calling in expert asbestos removalists to take care of the hazardous material.

So, we know now that asbestos is bad, but it wasn’t always like that. These videos and ads below are proof of just how caught up in the asbestos revolution we really were.

The “wonderful” uses of asbestos

We know now that asbestos is anything but wonderful unless you’re referring to it in a sarcastic way when you find out your home has it. “Wonderful, that’s just GREAT.” (When that happens, you track down your local asbestos removal experts to take care of the problem!)

But, back in the 1950s and surrounding decades, asbestos really was a wonderful invention – as you can see in this video. The video begins with the natural formation of asbestos, and how it becomes an “amazing fireproof material” that is not a vegetable, but a mineral in a rock-like form.

The video then shows people cutting it with their bare hands, which is a far cry from how we handle asbestos today.

Practical uses, according to the video narrator, are “numerous”, with around 18,000 ways – and counting – to benefit from it. Everything from the steam engine industry to firefighters and the RAF saw value in the marvellous product we now know is deadly.

Women would line the floors of factories to produce and sew clothing out of it, and full firefighting suits – including facemasks, were fashioned from it too. Winter coats for oil engines, fireproof curtains and covers, they were all produced with an astounding material that had no end of versatility and convenience.

If you were to see that kind of advertising used today, you would think someone had gone insane!

The “beauty” of asbestos

A lot of things happened in the 1950s. The first organ transplant took place in 1950, and DNA was discovered in 1953. What was also a relatively new phenomenon, but growing in popularity, was asbestos for building materials.

In this ad, asbestos cement roofing was being highlighted as the be-all and end-all of building materials. If your home wasn’t made of asbestos, then it wasn’t worth nearly as much as one that was. According to the ad narrator, asbestos was “designed to last a lifetime, a trouble-free lifetime, and designed for a lifetime of beauty”. As we know now, that’s not quite true.

Scientists in the ad called it a remarkable mineral and one that is made up of tiny but strong and flexible fibres. Its “great success” and “long testing and experiment” made it a natural choice for home siding and roofing.

It could be applied like standard shingles, but wouldn’t rot or decay, so it doesn’t need paint. However, it could be painted if that’s what the homeowner preferred.

A lady interviewed in the ad spoke about how much value it added to her home, and the narrator reiterated how the “people who use asbestos cement siding report with satisfaction”.

Little did we know that just two decades later, it would be banned and classed as a dangerous material that could end up being fatal.

Asbestos tiling

Looking back at vintage ads can be a fun pastime. You get to see old fashion, how the world lived, and what we were naïve about. But it can also be sad, especially when you see dangerous materials passed off as the next best thing to have in your home. No one knew any better, and it cost people their lives.

Many people may not know that asbestos can also be found in flooring materials such as linoleum, and it was once advertised as a durable and robust form of flooring that anyone could enjoy for their lifetime. While it’s a known fact that asbestos is only dangerous when it’s disturbed or exposed, it’s still an eye-opener to see it raved about in forms of advertising.

What have we learned, and where to from here?

If you’ve watched these videos above, you probably think that they surely can’t be real. But at one time, asbestos really was the material of choice. From its inception until its demise, a timeline of events took place to bring it into the spotlight as a material that could be hazardous for your health.

Now, we’re in clean-up mode. Any homes or businesses with exposed asbestos or that will be undertaking renovations in the near future will require a specialist team of asbestos removal experts. Unlike all those years ago, the utmost care is taken to prevent a repeat of the same health implications that have plagued the generations.