Asbestos and Fire: Technological Tradeoffs and the Body at Risk
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.82 (638 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0813564727 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 272 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-03-24 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
For much of the industrial era, asbestos was a widely acclaimed benchmark material. During its heyday, it was manufactured into nearly three thousand different products, most of which protected life and property from heat, flame, and electricity. 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 res
"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."
Jan Peczkis said A Mini-Encyclopedia on Asbestos and Fire Retardation: OLA Fire Highlighted. 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 incen