Asbestos is a natural mineral that used to be mined and used in many countries all over the globe. Until the 1980s, the mined asbestos was widely used in construction, due to its strength and fireproofing qualities. Now, its dangers are widely known and it has been banned in many countries. What are these dangers? As asbestos wears down, it releases microscopic fibers into the air. These fibers, upon being breathed in, can be deadly. How? The fibers get stuck in the lungs, irritating and scarring the lung tissue. Mesothelioma, a rare and deadly cancer that is entirely avoidable, is very decisively linked to damage from asbestos fibers. It also has a decades long latency period, so there is no way to know you have it until it is way too late. Asbestos causes other diseases too, cancerous and otherwise, such as asbestosis. Asbestos’s dangers could have been announced much earlier than they were: decades before asbestos bans began widely, some people, such as doctors, knew of asbestos’s dangers, but they didn’t share the information for economic reasons, effectively killing thousands of people. Maddeningly, the dangers weren’t shared until much later, but everyone should do their own part, and find out if their home contains asbestos, and if it does, remove it to save lives.