The Miracle Material That Killed Millions

About this video

How asbestos ended up everywhere, and why we’re still using it today. Sponsored by Ground News - Go to https://ground.news/Ve for 40% off the unlimited Vantage plan, to catch how major public health stories are covered across the political spectrum and spot media bias for yourself. If you’re looking for a molecular modelling kit, try Snatoms, a kit I invented where the atoms snap together magnetically - https://ve42.co/SnatomsV Sign up for the Veritasium newsletter for weekly science updates - https://ve42.co/Newsletter ▀▀▀ Further resources and information about asbestos can be found here - https://ve42.co/AsbestosResources Nevada state regulatory guidance on assessing asbestos-related risk in soils - ve42.co/NDEPguidance ▀▀▀ 0:00 A Weavable Rock 9:41 The Asbestos Boom 13:06 What Does Asbestos Do To Humans? 16:57 The Doctor Who Exposed Asbestos 21:59 The Asbestosis Cover-Up 28:36 Where Is Asbestos Found? 33:18 How Did Asbestos Get Everywhere? 39:55 What Counts As Asbestos? 42:30 Asbestos Surrounds Las Vegas 47:56 When Was Asbestos Banned? 51:54 Should You Be Worried? ▀▀▀ A huge thanks to Sean Fitzgerald, Brenda Buck and Rodney Metcalfe for lending so much of their time and expertise to this video, and for all their work raising public awareness. And to Jean Pfau, Michael Bowker, Barry Castleman and Jonathan Bennion for their invaluable insight and guidance, helping us ensure we told this story accurately. Check out Jonathan Bennion’s videos from the Human Anatomy Institute here. Look out for his upcoming video on Asbestos - youtube.com/@theanatomylab Michael Bowker’s book was a great resource - https://ve42.co/BowkerFatalDeception Graham Gould and Ross Fielding from Thermal Recycling provided valuable feedback on the mineralogy of asbestos. Find out more about how they’re tackling legacy asbestos here - https://ve42.co/ThermalRecycling John Richards from Thames Laboratories really helped us to understand the actual risks of asbestos in existing buildings - https://ve42.co/ThamesLabs We’re very grateful to many researchers who also lent us their time and helped us to understand the core science behind asbestos, including Guillermo Rein, Ashley Howkins, and Brooke Johnson, whose YouTube channel can be found here - youtube.com/@geologyjohnson7700 ▀▀▀ Research and visual references can be found here - https://ve42.co/AsbestosRefs ▀▀▀ Special thanks to our Patreon supporters: Adam Foreman, Albert Wenger, Alex Porter, Alexander Tamas, Anton Ragin, armedtoe, Balkrishna Heroor, Bertrand Serlet, Blake Byers, Bruce, Charles Ian Norman Venn, Daniel Martins, Data Don, Dave Kircher, David Johnston, David Tseng, EJ Alexandra, Evgeny Skvortsov, Garrett Mueller, Gnare, gpoly, Hayden Christensen, Hong Thai Le, Ibby Hadeed, Jeromy Johnson, Jesse Brandsoy, Jon Jamison, Juan Benet, KeyWestr, Kyi, Lee Redden, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Mark Heising, Martin Paull, Meekay, meg noah, Michael Krugman, Moebiusol - Cristian, Orlando Bassotto, Parsee Health, Paul Peijzel, Richard Sundvall, Robson, Sam Lutfi, Shalva Bukia, Sinan Taifour, Tj Steyn, Ubiquity Ventures, Vahe Andonians, wolfee ▀▀▀ Writers: Emilia Gyles, Gregor Čavlović, Casper Mebius & Derek Muller Producer & Director: Emilia Gyles Editor: Jonny Lennard Camera Operators: Tyler Stefanelli, Denver Dan, Emilia Gyles & Gregor Čavlović Drone Operator: Raf Willems Producer on Location: Sarah Houlton Animators: Emma Wright, Andrew Neet, Saif Javed & Fabio Albertelli Illustrators: Nataly Zhuk, Maria Gusakovich, Grace Nemanic, Isaac McRee & Jakub Misiek Assistant Editors: James Stuart and James Horsley Researcher: Callum Cuttle Thumbnail Designers: Abdallah Rabah, Ren Hurley & Ben Powell Production Team: Josh Pitt, Matthew Cavanagh, Anna Milkovic, Katy Southwood & Jess Bishop-Laggett Executive Producers: Derek Muller, Casper Mebius & Gregor Čavlović Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images & Storyblocks Music from Epidemic Sound