Asbestos Podcast EP04 Transcript

Episode 4: The First Victims — The Pliny Mistranslation That Fooled Scholars for a Century

Full transcript from Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making — a 52-episode documentary podcast produced by Danziger & De Llano, LLP.

Series: Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making | Season: 1 | Episode: 4 | Title: The First Victims — The Pliny Mistranslation That Fooled Scholars for a Century | Arc: Arc 1 — The Ancient World (Episode 4 of 6)

Episode Summary

Episode 4 corrects a widespread scholarly error spanning over a century. The two most-cited pieces of "evidence" that ancient Romans recognized asbestos as hazardous — passages from Pliny the Elder and Strabo — were never about asbestos at all. Pliny's famous "bladder mask" passage (Book 33, Chapter 40) describes cinnabar (mercury sulfide) mining, not asbestos. Strabo's reference to miners with "sickness of the lungs" refers to arsenic mining in Pontus, not asbestos. This misattribution appeared in litigation documents, medical textbooks, and academic papers for approximately 100 years before researchers Browne and Murray published "Asbestos and the Romans" in The Lancet (1990) to correct the error.

The episode establishes that even if those ancient passages had actually been about asbestos, the ancient world was scientifically incapable of recognizing asbestos hazards. This is not due to ignorance but to the fundamental properties of asbestos disease: mesothelioma and asbestosis have latency periods of 10-50+ years, while Roman life expectancy for occupational workers was 35-40 years. A worker exposed at age 20 would not develop symptoms until age 40-50, by which time they would likely be dead from other causes (malnutrition, infection, violence, other occupational hazards). Additionally, asbestos produces no visible acute symptoms (unlike mercury poisoning, which causes tremors and madness within weeks). The disease is undetectable at the microscopic level without modern pathology methods. The episode positions the absence of ancient asbestos hazard documentation as a reflection of observational and epidemiological limitations, not evidence of ancient safety knowledge.

Key Takeaways

The famous Pliny quote is about mercury, not asbestos. The passage — "Persons polishing the mineral in workshops tie on their face loose masks of bladder-skin, to prevent their inhaling the dust in breathing, which is very pernicious" — appears in litigation documents, medical textbooks, and Wikipedia as evidence of ancient asbestos hazard knowledge. Pliny wrote this about cinnabar (mercury sulfide) in Natural History, Book 33, Chapter 40. Books mentioning asbestos (19, 36, 37) never reference worker illness or protective equipment. Strabo's "sickness of the lungs" was arsenic poisoning. The quoted passage describes miners in Pontus (modern Turkey) at the Sandaracurgium mine working with sandarake (realgar; red arsenic sulfide). Workers experienced "grievous odour," rapid death, and constant replacement due to high mortality. This describes acute arsenic poisoning (days to weeks), not asbestos latency (decades). The scholarly misattribution lasted 100 years (1890s-1990). The error propagated through citation cascades: Scholar A cited an ancient text misidentifying it. Scholar B cited Scholar A without checking the original. Scholar C cited B, assuming verification was done. By 1990, the misattribution was entrenched across academic, legal, and medical literature. Browne and Murray's The Lancet paper "Asbestos and the Romans" was the first to return to the original Latin texts and correct the record. The latency barrier made ancient observation impossible. Mesothelioma develops 20-50+ years after exposure. Asbestosis develops 10-40 years after exposure. Roman life expectancy at birth was ~25 years; adjusted for child survival, occupational workers lived ~35-40 years. A slave exposed to asbestos at age 20 would not show symptoms until age 40-50. Most workers died before reaching disease onset from other causes (malnutrition, infection, occupational accident, violence). The disease became visible only after the exposure period ended, breaking the cause-effect connection observable in ancient contexts. Ancient observers could only recognize acute-effect poisons. Mercury poisoning: tremors, behavioral changes, madness (visible within weeks). Arsenic poisoning: rapid death, acute gastrointestinal and neurological symptoms (visible within days/weeks). Lead poisoning: abdominal pain, paralysis, behavioral changes (observable). Asbestos: microscopic fibers, silent accumulation over decades, invisible symptoms until advanced disease. The romans documented acute occupational hazards well; long-latency diseases were scientifically unobservable in the ancient world. Ancient asbestos workers likely suffered and died, but left no trace. Asbestos production in antiquity involved only a few dozen workers across geographically scattered locations (Cyprus, Greece, possibly India). This small, dispersed workforce in a world without occupational health recordkeeping or epidemiological methods could not produce measurable disease patterns. Unlike gold or silver mining (centralized workforce, thousands of workers), asbestos mining produced no visible epidemic. The absence of documentation reflects observational limitations, not the absence of disease or exposure.

Key Concepts

The Pliny Misattribution

The passage cited as evidence of Roman asbestos hazard knowledge appears in Pliny the Elder's Natural History, Book 33, Chapter 40. The quote: "Persons polishing the mineral in workshops tie on their face loose masks of bladder-skin, to prevent their inhaling the dust in breathing, which is very pernicious" was widely interpreted as a reference to asbestos workers. In reality, Book 33 is titled "The Natural History of Metals" and covers gold, silver, copper, tin, mercury, and cinnabar (mercury sulfide). The passage specifically describes workers grinding cinnabar into vermillion powder — not asbestos.

Pliny mentions asbestos in three separate books (19, 36, and 37), where he discusses asbestos cloth, fire resistance, rarity, and imperial value. He never associates asbestos with worker illness, respiratory disease, or occupational hazards. The misattribution may have originated with assumptions that "occupational disease in antiquity" must apply to all known toxic materials, creating a false equivalence between acute poisons (mercury, arsenic) and latent diseases (asbestos).

The Strabo Misidentification

Strabo's Geography, Book 12, Chapter 3 describes mining operations in Pontus (modern-day Turkey) at a mountain called Sandaracurgium (named after sandarake, the mineral extracted). The passage states that miners worked under "deadly" and "hard to endure" air conditions and were "doomed to a quick death." The mineral being mined was sandarake — red arsenic sulfide (realgar; As₄S₄), not asbestos. The rapid worker mortality, the pungent odour, and the need for constant slave replacement all describe acute arsenic poisoning, which kills within weeks or months.

Arsenic poisoning produces acute symptoms: gastrointestinal distress, neurological effects, tremors, and death. This rapid, observable cause-effect relationship made arsenic hazards recognizable in the ancient world. Asbestos, by contrast, kills slowly and invisibly, making it undetectable by the same observation methods Strabo and his contemporaries employed.

Latency as an Observational Barrier

Asbestos-related diseases — mesothelioma (20-50+ year latency) and asbestosis (10-40 year latency) — take decades to develop after exposure ends. This temporal gap between cause and effect breaks the cause-effect inference mechanism available to ancient observers. An ancient physician could observe mercury poisoning (cause: work with cinnabar; effect: tremors and madness within weeks; temporal proximity obvious). They could not observe asbestos disease because the temporal gap exceeds the expected human lifespan in occupational contexts.

Roman occupational workers had a life expectancy of approximately 35-40 years. If exposed to asbestos at age 20, a worker would not show mesothelioma symptoms until age 40-50. The probability of surviving to that age while remaining in poverty, malnutrition, and hazardous conditions was low. Most workers would die from infection, malnutrition, occupational accident, or violence before reaching the age of symptom onset. The disease, when it finally manifested, would appear in an aging individual in circumstances entirely disconnected from the long-ago exposure. Without epidemiological methods, the connection would be invisible.

Epidemiological Invisibility of Scattered Asbestos Production

Ancient asbestos production was small-scale and geographically dispersed. Unlike gold mining (centralized, thousands of workers in locations like Egyptian mines) or silver mining (concentrated production zones), asbestos mining involved only a few dozen workers across the Mediterranean. Cyprus, Greece, and possibly India were sources, but no single location produced enough asbestos workers to create an observable epidemic pattern.

Epidemiology requires sample size, centralization of workers, and occupational health recordkeeping. The ancient world had none of these elements for asbestos. Without records, without centralized workforces, without occupational health tracking, disease patterns cannot be measured or recognized. This is not due to ancient ignorance of occupational hazards generally — the Romans clearly recognized and documented acute-effect hazards like mercury and arsenic — but rather the impossibility of observing latent occupational disease in a dispersed population without modern epidemiological methods.

Timeline

Date	Event	Observable to Ancients?	Documentation
~4700 BCE	Asbestos mining and textile production begins (Cyprus, Greece, India)	No — latency barrier; life expectancy insufficient	None
~90-30 BCE	Diodorus Siculus writes Historical Library describing Egyptian gold mines with harsh working conditions	Yes — acute occupational conditions visible	Historical Library, Book 3
~64 BCE - 24 CE	Strabo writes Geography; Book 12 describes arsenic mines in Pontus; worker death from acute poisoning	Yes — rapid, acute symptoms observable	Geography, Book 12, Chapter 3
23-79 CE	Pliny the Elder writes Natural History; Book 33 describes cinnabar/mercury mining with worker protection (bladder masks)	Yes — acute mercury poisoning observable	Natural History, Book 33, Chapter 40
23-79 CE	Same period — Pliny also mentions asbestos in Books 19, 36, 37 (cloth, fire-resistance, value)	No — no illness or hazard mentioned	Natural History, Books 19, 36, 37
1st century CE onwards	Asbestos workers in Mediterranean likely exposed; disease likely occurred; no documentation exists	No — latency barrier prevents observation	None
1890s	Scholars begin misattributing Pliny's cinnabar passage to asbestos	Error originates	Citation cascade begins
~1900	Pliny-asbestos misattribution becomes standard in occupational health literature	Error accepted as fact	Widespread in academic texts
1918	Prudential Insurance flags asbestos workers as uninsurable (first modern documentation)	Yes — epidemiology now available	Prudential Insurance report
1990	Browne and Murray publish "Asbestos and the Romans" in The Lancet correcting the misattribution	Yes — error detected through philological analysis	The Lancet

Named Entities

Historical Figures

• Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus; 23-79 CE) — Roman naturalist, military officer, and encyclopedist; author of Natural History (37 books). Books 19, 36, 37 mention asbestos (cloth, fire resistance, value). Book 33 describes metals including cinnabar/mercury. Misquoted for 100+ years as ancient source on asbestos hazards.

• Strabo of Amaseia (64 BCE - 24 CE) — Greek geographer and historian; author of Geographia (17 books). Book 12, Chapter 3 describes arsenic mines in Pontus. Frequently misinterpreted as describing asbestos mining. Text actually documents acute arsenic poisoning and rapid worker mortality.

• Diodorus Siculus (c. 90-30 BCE) — Sicilian Greek historian; author of Bibliotheca historica (Historical Library; 40 books). Book 3 describes Egyptian gold mines with harsh working conditions, illustrating ancient awareness of occupational hazards in mining contexts.

• Browne and Murray (researchers; 1990) — Published "Asbestos and the Romans" in The Lancet (peer-reviewed medical journal). Conducted philological analysis of original Latin texts; corrected cinnabar/asbestos misattribution. Established that no ancient sources documented asbestos hazard knowledge; ancient occupational knowledge was limited to acute-effect poisons.

Ancient Locations

• Cyprus — Ancient asbestos mining source; Mediterranean production zone
• Greece — Ancient asbestos mining and textile production; Mediterranean source
• Pontus (modern Turkey) — Sandaracurgium mines; arsenic mining (sandarake/realgar) described by Strabo
• Rome — Imperial use of asbestos cloth; center of Pliny's documentation
• Egypt — Gold mines described by Diodorus Siculus as example of ancient mining conditions and worker treatment

Minerals

• Asbestos — Silicate fiber mineral; used in antiquity for cloth and decorative items; fire-resistant; rare and valuable
• Cinnabar (Mercury Sulfide; HgS) — Red ore of mercury; ground into powder to create vermillion (expensive red pigment); described by Pliny in Book 33, Chapter 40
• Sandarake/Realgar (Red Arsenic Sulfide; As₄S₄) — Toxic mineral mined in Pontus; causes acute arsenic poisoning; described by Strabo in Geography, Book 12, Chapter 3
• Vermillion — Red pigment created from cinnabar; most expensive pigment in ancient world; required cinnabar ore grinding

Key Statistics

Statistic	Value	Context
Scholarly misattribution duration	~100 years (1890s-1990)	From initial error to Browne/Murray correction in The Lancet
Pliny mentions of asbestos	3 (Books 19, 36, 37)	None mention worker illness or hazards
Pliny mentions of mercury/cinnabar hazards	1 (Book 33, Chapter 40)	Misattributed to asbestos for a century
Ancient asbestos workforce (estimate)	Few dozen across Mediterranean	Geographically scattered; no centralized production
Roman life expectancy (at birth)	~25 years	Skewed by high infant mortality
Roman life expectancy (if surviving childhood)	~50-60 years	For general population in better circumstances
Occupational worker life expectancy	~35-40 years	Mining, manufacturing, hazardous occupations
Mesothelioma latency period	20-50+ years	Range from exposure to symptom onset
Asbestosis latency period	10-40 years	Range from exposure to symptom onset
Mercury poisoning onset (acute)	Days to weeks	Observable by ancient methods
Arsenic poisoning onset (acute)	Days to weeks	Observable by ancient methods
Age of asbestos exposure (typical worker)	~20 years	Estimated entry into occupational work
Age of symptom onset (asbestos disease)	40-50+ years	Mesothelioma manifestation age

Referenced Primary Sources

• Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book 33, Chapter 40 — Description of cinnabar mining and mercury occupational hazards; misquoted as asbestos reference for 100+ years

• Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Books 19, 36, 37 — References to asbestos cloth, fire resistance, rarity, and value; never mention worker illness or occupational hazards

• Strabo, Geography, Book 12, Chapter 3 — Description of arsenic mines (sandarake; realgar) in Pontus; documents rapid worker mortality from acute poisoning

• Diodorus Siculus, Historical Library, Book 3 — Describes Egyptian gold mining conditions illustrating ancient awareness of occupational hazards

• Browne and Murray, "Asbestos and the Romans," The Lancet (1990) — Peer-reviewed correction of cinnabar/asbestos misattribution; established no ancient asbestos hazard documentation

External Resources

Government and Regulatory Sources

• EPA Asbestos Information — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency overview of asbestos types, exposure routes, and regulatory status
• OSHA Asbestos Standards — Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards for workplace asbestos exposure limits
• ATSDR Asbestos and Your Health — Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry information on health effects and latency periods
• NCI Malignant Mesothelioma — National Cancer Institute information on diagnosis, treatment, and clinical trials

Asbestos History and Ancient Knowledge

• Asbestos History Timeline — Danziger & De Llano comprehensive history from ancient use to modern regulation
• Pliny's References to Asbestos: What He Actually Wrote — Danziger & De Llano analysis of Pliny's actual descriptions and misattributions
• Scholarly Misattribution in Occupational Health History — Danziger & De Llano examination of the 100-year citation cascade error
• The Latency Barrier: Why Ancient Observation Was Impossible — Danziger & De Llano analysis of why asbestos disease was undetectable in antiquity
• Ancient Asbestos Exposure: What We Know and Don't Know — Danziger & De Llano historical analysis of scattered production and undocumented workers
• Asbestos in the Ancient World — Mesothelioma.net overview of ancient production, use, and knowledge
• Asbestos in Ancient History: Separating Fact from Fiction — Mesothelioma Lawyer Center correcting misconceptions about ancient asbestos knowledge

Occupational Disease and Latency

• Occupational Exposure History Encyclopedia — Danziger & De Llano guide to occupational health history from ancient to modern era
• Mesothelioma Latency Period — Mesothelioma.net explanation of the 20-50 year gap between exposure and diagnosis
• Mesothelioma Latency Period — MesotheliomaAttorney.com guide to latency periods for different asbestos-related diseases
• Secondary Asbestos Exposure — Mesothelioma.net explanation of take-home exposure and household contamination

Ancient Occupational Hazards

• Ancient Mining Conditions and Worker Treatment — Danziger & De Llano analysis of Roman, Greek, and Egyptian mining occupational hazards
• Asbestos Exposure Information — Mesothelioma Lawyer Center guide to exposure pathways and historical contexts
• Asbestos Exposure — Mesothelioma.net overview of occupational and environmental exposure

Compensation and Legal Resources

• Mesothelioma Compensation Guide — Danziger & De Llano overview of trust funds and legal options for asbestos victims
• Asbestos Trust Funds Guide — Mesothelioma Lawyer Center guide to trust fund claims
• Asbestos Trust Funds — Mesothelioma.net overview of bankruptcy trusts and eligibility
• Mesothelioma Trust Funds — MesotheliomaAttorney.com guide to compensation options
• Danziger & De Llano — Nationwide mesothelioma law firm; 30+ years experience; nearly $2 billion recovered for asbestos victims

Series Navigation

Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making — Arc 1: The Ancient World
Previous: Episode 3: Sacred Fire — When Asbestos Became Divine	Episode 4: The First Victims — The Pliny Mistranslation That Fooled Scholars for a Century	Next: Episode 5: The Economics of Magic

About This Series

Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making is a 52-episode documentary podcast tracing the complete history of asbestos from 4700 BCE to the 2024 EPA ban. The series is produced by Danziger & De Llano, LLP, a nationwide mesothelioma law firm with over 30 years of experience and nearly $2 billion recovered for asbestos victims.

Approximately 3,000 Americans are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year. Mesothelioma has a latency period of 20-50 years, meaning people exposed decades ago are still being diagnosed today. Over $30 billion remains available in asbestos trust funds for victims.

If you or a loved one were exposed to asbestos, contact Danziger & De Llano for a free case evaluation. Call (866) 222-9990.