Not to be confused with the lung disease caused by asbestos, asbestosis.
For other uses, see Asbestos (disambiguation).
Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals, which all have in common their asbestiform habit: i.e., long (roughly 1:20 aspect ratio), thin fibrous crystals, with each visible fiber composed of millions of microscopic "fibrils" that can be released by abrasion and other processes. The minerals are chrysotile, amosite, crocidolite, tremolite, anthophyllite, and actinolite.
Asbestos has been mined for over 4,000 years, but large-scale mining began at the end of the 19th century, when manufacturers and builders began using asbestos for its desirable physical properties. Some of those properties are sound absorption, average tensile strength, affordability, and resistance to fire, heat, and electricity. It was used in such applications as electrical insulation for hotplate wiring and in building insulation. When asbestos is used for its resistance to fire or heat, the fibers are often mixed with cement or woven into fabric or mats. These desirable properties led to asbestos being used very widely until the late 20th century.
Inhalation of asbestos fibers can cause serious and fatal illnesses including lung cancer, mesothelioma, and asbestosis (a type of pneumoconiosis). Asbestos is currently estimated to cause 255,000 deaths per year. Concern for asbestos-related illness began in the 20th century and escalated during the 1920s and 1930s. By the 1980s and 1990s, asbestos trade and use were heavily restricted, phased out, or banned outright in an increasing number of countries. Many developing countries still support the use of asbestos as a building material, and mining of asbestos is ongoing, with the top producer Russia producing around one million metric tonnes in 2015.
Despite the severity of asbestos-related diseases, the material has extremely widespread use in many areas. Continuing long-term use of asbestos after harmful health effects were known or suspected, and the slow emergence of symptoms decades after exposure ceased, made asbestos litigation the longest, most expensive mass tort in U.S. history though a much lesser legal issue in most other countries involved. Asbestos-related liability also remains an ongoing concern for many manufacturers, insurers and reinsurers.
The word "asbestos", first used in the 1600s, ultimately derives from the Ancient Greek ἄσβεστος, meaning "unquenchable" or "inextinguishable". The name reflects use of the substance for wicks that would never burn up.
It was adopted via the Old French abestos, which in turn got the word from Greek via Latin, but in the original Greek, it actually referred to quicklime. It is said by the Oxford English Dictionary to have been wrongly used by Pliny for asbestos, who popularized the misnomer. Asbestos was referred to in Greek as amiantos, meaning "undefiled", because it was not marked when thrown into a fire. This is the source for the word for asbestos in many languages, such as the Portuguese amianto. It had also been called "amiant" in English in the early 15th century, but this usage was superseded by "asbestos". The word is pronounced /æsˈbɛstəs/ or /æsˈbɛstɒs/.
People have used asbestos for thousands of years to create flexible objects, such as napkins, that resist fire. In the modern era, companies began producing asbestos consumer goods on an industrial scale. Now people recognize the health hazard that asbestos poses, and it is banned or strictly regulated around the world.
Asbestos use dates back at least 4,500 years, when the inhabitants of the Lake Juojärvi region in East Finland strengthened earthenware pots and cooking utensils with the asbestos mineral anthophyllite (see Asbestos-ceramic). One of the first descriptions of a material that may have been asbestos is in Theophrastus, On Stones, from around 300 BC, although this identification has been questioned. In both modern and ancient Greek, the usual name for the material known in English as "asbestos" is amiantos ("undefiled", "pure"), which was adapted into the French as amiante and into Spanish and Portuguese as amianto. In modern Greek, the word ἀσβεστος or ασβέστης stands consistently and solely for lime.
The term asbestos is traceable to Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder's manuscript Natural History, and his use of the term asbestinon, meaning "unquenchable". While Pliny or his nephew Pliny the Younger is popularly credited with recognising the detrimental effects of asbestos on human beings, examination of the primary sources reveals no support for either claim.
Wealthy Persians amazed guests by cleaning a cloth by exposing it to fire. For example, according to Tabari, one of the curious items belonging to Khosrow II Parviz, the great Sassanian king (r. 531–579), was a napkin (Persian: منديل) that he cleaned simply by throwing it into fire. Such cloth is believed to have been made of asbestos imported over the Hindu Kush. According to Biruni in his book, Gems, any cloths made of asbestos (Persian: آذرشست, āzarshost) were called shostakeh (Persian: شستكه). Some Persians believed the fiber was the fur of an animal, called the samandar (Persian: سمندر), which lived in fire and died when exposed to water, which was where the former belief that the salamander could tolerate fire originated.
Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor (800–814), is said to have had a tablecloth made of asbestos.
Marco Polo recounts having been shown, in a place he calls Ghinghin talas, "a good vein from which the cloth which we call of salamander, which cannot be burnt if it is thrown into the fire, is made ..."
Industrial scale asbestos mining began in 1878 in Thetford township, Quebec. By 1895, mining was increasingly mechanized.
The large-scale asbestos industry began in the mid-19th century. Early attempts at producing asbestos paper and cloth in Italy began in the 1850s, but were unsuccessful in creating a market for such products. Canadian samples of asbestos were displayed in London in 1862, and the first companies were formed in England and Scotland to exploit this resource. Asbestos was first used in the manufacture of yarn, and German industrialist Louis Wertheim adopted this process in his factories in Germany.  In 1871, the Patent Asbestos Manufacturing Company was established in Glasgow, and during the following decades, the Clydebank area became a centre for the nascent industry.
Industrial-scale mining began in the Thetford hills, Quebec, from the 1870s. Sir William Edmond Logan was the first to notice the large deposits of chrysotile in the hills in his capacity as head of Geological Survey of Canada. Samples of the minerals from here were displayed in London, and excited much interest. With the opening up of the Quebec Central Railway in 1876, mining entrepreneurs such as Andrew Stuart Johnson established the asbestos industry in the province. The 50 ton output of the mines in 1878 rose to over 10,000 tons in the 1890s with the adoption of machine technologies and expanded production. For a long time, the world's largest asbestos mine was the Jeffrey mine in the town of Asbestos, Quebec.
Asbestos production began in the Urals of the Russian Empire in the 1880s, and in the Alpine regions of Northern Italy with the formation in Turin of the Italo-English Pure Asbestos Company in 1876, although this was soon swamped by the greater production levels from the Canadian mines. Mining also took off in South Africa from 1893 under the aegis of the British businessman Francis Oates, the Director of the De Beers company. It was in South Africa that the production of amosite began in 1910. The U.S. asbestos industry had an early start in 1858, when fibrous anthophyllite was mined for use as asbestos insulation by the Johns Company, a predecessor to the current Johns Manville, at a quarry at Ward's Hill on Staten Island, New York. US production began in earnest in 1899, with the discovery of large deposits in the Belvidere Mountain.
The use of asbestos became increasingly widespread towards the end of the 19th century, when its diverse applications included fire-retardant coatings, concrete, bricks, pipes and fireplace cement, heat-, fire-, and acid-resistant gaskets, pipe insulation, ceiling insulation, fireproof drywall, flooring, roofing, lawn furniture, and drywall joint compound. In 2011 it was reported that over 50% of UK houses still contained asbestos, despite a ban on asbestos products some years earlier.
In Japan, particularly after World War II, asbestos was used in the manufacture of ammonium sulfate for purposes of rice production, sprayed upon the ceilings, iron skeletons, and walls of railroad cars and buildings (during the 1960s), and used for energy efficiency reasons as well. Production of asbestos in Japan peaked in 1974 and went through ups and downs until about 1990, when production began to drop dramatically.
For additional chronological citations, see List of asbestos disease medical articles.
In 1899, Montague Murray noted the negative health effects of asbestos. The first documented death related to asbestos was in 1906.
In the early 1900s researchers began to notice a large number of early deaths and lung problems in asbestos-mining towns. The first such study was conducted by H. Montague Murray at the Charing Cross Hospital, London, in 1900, in which a postmortem investigation of a young man who had died from pulmonary fibrosis after having worked for 14 years in an asbestos textile factory, discovered asbestos traces in the victim's lungs. Adelaide Anderson, the Inspector of Factories in Britain, included asbestos in a list of harmful industrial substances in 1902. Similar investigations were conducted in France and Italy, in 1906 and 1908, respectively.
The first diagnosis of asbestosis was made in the UK in 1924. Nellie Kershaw was employed at Turner Brothers Asbestos in Rochdale,Greater Manchester, England from 1917, spinning raw asbestos fibre into yarn. Her death in 1924 led to a formal inquest. Pathologist William Edmund Cooke testified that his examination of the lungs indicated old scarring indicative of a previous, healed, tuberculosis infection, and extensive fibrosis, in which were visible "particles of mineral matter ... of various shapes, but the large majority have sharp angles." Having compared these particles with samples of asbestos dust provided by S. A. Henry, His Majesty's Medical Inspector of Factories, Cooke concluded that they "originated from asbestos and were, beyond a reasonable doubt, the primary cause of the fibrosis of the lungs and therefore of death".
As a result of Cooke's paper, parliament commissioned an inquiry into the effects of asbestos dust by E. R. A. Merewether, Medical Inspector of Factories, and C. W. Price, a factory inspector and pioneer of dust monitoring and control. Their subsequent report, Occurrence of Pulmonary Fibrosis & Other Pulmonary Affections in Asbestos Workers, was presented to parliament on 24 March 1930. It concluded that the development of asbestosis was irrefutably linked to the prolonged inhalation of asbestos dust, and included the first health study of asbestos workers, which found that 66% of those employed for 20 years or more suffered from asbestosis. The report led to the publication of the first Asbestos Industry Regulations in 1931, which came into effect on 1 March 1932. These regulated ventilation and made asbestosis an excusable work-related disease. The term mesothelioma was first used in medical literature in 1931; its association with asbestos was first noted sometime in the 1940s. Similar legislation followed in the U.S. about ten years later.
Approximately 100,000 people in the United States have died, or are terminally ill, from asbestos exposure related to ship building. In the Hampton Roads area, a shipbuilding center, mesothelioma occurrence is seven times the national rate. Thousands of tons of asbestos were used in World War II ships to insulate piping, boilers, steam engines, and steam turbines. There were approximately 4.3 million shipyard workers in the United States during WWII; for every 1,000 workers about 14 died of mesothelioma and an unknown number died from asbestosis.
The United States government and asbestos industry have been criticized for not acting quickly enough to inform the public of dangers, and to reduce public exposure. In the late 1970s, court documents proved that asbestos industry officials knew of asbestos dangers since the 1930s and had concealed them from the public.
In Australia, asbestos was widely used in construction and other industries between 1946 and 1980. From the 1970s there was increasing concern about the dangers of asbestos, and its use was phased out. Mining ceased in 1983. The use of asbestos was phased out in 1989 and banned entirely in December 2003. The dangers of asbestos are now well known in Australia and there is help and support for sufferers from asbestosis or mesothelioma.
Example of asbestos cement siding and lining on a post-war temporary house in Yardley. Nearly 40,000 of these structures were built between 1946 and 1949 to house families.
In the European Union and Australia it has been banned as a potential health hazard and is not used at all. Japan is moving in the same direction, but at a slower pace.
Thermal and chemical insulation (e.g., fire rated doors, limpet spray, lagging and gaskets).
Cigarette manufacturer Lorillard (Kent's filtered cigarette) used crocidolite asbestos in its "Micronite" filter from 1952 to 1956.
While mostly chrysotile asbestos fibers were once used in automobile brake pads, shoes, and clutch discs, contaminants of amphiboles were present. Since approximately the mid-1990s, brake pads, new or replacement, have been manufactured instead with linings made of ceramic, carbon, metallic and aramid fiber (Twaron or Kevlar—the same material used in bulletproof vests).
Artificial Christmas snow, known as flocking, was previously made with asbestos. It was used as an effect in films including The Wizard of Oz and department store window displays and it was marketed for use in private homes under brand names that included "Pure White", "Snow Drift" and "White Magic".
Older decorative ceilings, similar to this one, may contain small amounts of white asbestos.
1929 newspaper advertisement from Perth, Western Australia, for asbestos sheeting for residential building construction.
The use of asbestos in new construction projects has been banned for health and safety reasons in many developed countries or regions, including the European Union, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, and New Zealand. A notable exception is the United States, where asbestos continues to be used in construction such as cement asbestos pipes. The 5th Circuit Court prevented the EPA from banning asbestos in 1991 because EPA research showed the ban would cost between $450 and 800 million while only saving around 200 lives in a 13-year timeframe, and that the EPA did not provide adequate evidence for the safety of alternative products. Until the mid-1980s, small amounts of white asbestos were used in the manufacture of Artex, a decorative stipple finish, however, some of the lesser-known suppliers of Artex were still adding white asbestos until 1999.
Prior to the ban, asbestos was widely used in the construction industry in thousands of materials. Some are judged to be more dangerous than others due to the amount of asbestos and the material's friable nature. Sprayed coatings, pipe insulation and Asbestos Insulating Board (AIB) are thought to be the most dangerous due to their high content of asbestos and friable nature. Many older buildings built before the late 1990s contain asbestos. In the United States, there is a minimum standard for asbestos surveys as described by ASTM Standard E 2356–04. In the UK the Health and Safety Executive have issued guidance called HSG264 describing how surveys should be completed although other methods can be used if they can demonstrate they have met the regulations by other means. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency includes some but not all asbestos-contaminated facilities on the Superfund National Priorities list (NPL). Renovation and demolition of asbestos-contaminated buildings is subject to EPA NESHAP and OSHA Regulations. Asbestos is not a material covered under CERCLA's innocent purchaser defense. In the UK, the removal and disposal of asbestos and of substances containing it are covered by the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006.
U.S. asbestos consumption hit a peak of 804,000 tons in 1973; world asbestos demand peaked around 1977, with 25 countries producing nearly 4.8 million metric tons annually.
In older buildings (e.g. those built prior to 1999 in the UK, before white asbestos was banned), asbestos may still be present in some areas. Being aware of asbestos locations reduces the risk of disturbing asbestos.
Removal of asbestos building components can also remove the fire protection they provide, therefore fire protection substitutes are required for proper fire protection that the asbestos originally provided.
Some countries, such as India, Indonesia, China, Russia and Brazil, have continued widespread use of asbestos. The most common is corrugated asbestos-cement sheets or "A/C sheets" for roofing and for side walls. Millions of homes, factories, schools or sheds and shelters continue to use asbestos. Cutting these sheets to size and drilling holes to receive 'J' bolts to help secure the sheets to roof framing is done on-site. There has been no significant change in production and use of A/C sheets in developing countries following the widespread restrictions in developed nations.
As New York City's World Trade Center collapsed following the September 11 attacks, Lower Manhattan was blanketed in a mixture of building debris and combustible materials. This complex mixture gave rise to the concern that thousands of residents and workers in the area would be exposed to known hazards in the air and in the dust, such as asbestos, lead, glass fibers, and pulverized concrete. More than 1,000 tons of asbestos are thought to have been released into the air following the buildings' destruction. Inhalation of a mixture of asbestos and other toxicants is thought to be linked to the unusually high death rate from cancer of emergency service workers since the disaster. Thousands more are now thought to be at risk of developing cancer due to this exposure with those who have died so far being only the "tip of the iceberg". Some commentators have criticised authorities for using asbestos in the buildings' construction.
In May 2002, after numerous cleanup, dust collection, and air monitoring activities were conducted outdoors by EPA, other federal agencies, New York City, and the state of New York, New York City formally requested federal assistance to clean and test residences in the vicinity of the World Trade Center site for airborne asbestos.
Vermiculite is a hydrated laminar magnesium-aluminum-iron silicate which resembles mica. It can be used for many industrial applications and has been used as insulation. Some deposits of vermiculite have been found to be contaminated with small amounts of asbestos.
One vermiculite mine operated by W. R. Grace and Company in Libby, Montana exposed workers and community residents to danger by mining vermiculite contaminated with asbestos, typically richterite, winchite, actinolite or tremolite. Vermiculite contaminated with asbestos from the Libby mine was used as insulation in residential and commercial buildings through Canada and the United States. W. R. Grace and Company's loose-fill vermiculite was marketed as Zonolite but was also used in sprayed-on products such as Monokote.
In 1999 the EPA began cleanup efforts in Libby and now the area is a Superfund cleanup area. The EPA has determined that harmful asbestos is released from the mine as well as through other activities that disturb soil in the area.
A laboratory heat spreader made of asbestos, on tripod over a Teclu burner.
Talc can sometimes be contaminated with asbestos due to the proximity of asbestos ore (usually tremolite) in underground talc deposits. By 1973, US federal law required all talc products to be asbestos-free, and today there is strict quality control in the production of talc products, separating cosmetic-grade talc (e.g. talcum powder) from industrial-grade talc (often used in friction products) has largely eliminated this issue for consumers.
In 2000, tests in a certified asbestos-testing laboratory found the tremolite form of amphibole asbestos used to be found in three out of eight popular brands of children's crayons that were made partly from talc: Crayola, Prang, and RoseArt. In Crayola crayons, the tests found asbestos levels around 0.05% in Carnation Pink and 2.86% in Orchid; in Prang crayons, the range was from 0.3% in Periwinkle to 0.54% in Yellow; in Rose Art crayons, it was from 0.03% in Brown to 1.20% in Orange. Overall, 32 different types of crayons from these brands used to contain more than trace amounts of asbestos, and eight others contained trace amounts. The Art and Creative Materials Institute, a trade association which tested the safety of crayons on behalf of the makers, initially insisted the test results must have been incorrect, although they later said they do not test for asbestos. In May 2000, Crayola said tests by Richard Lee, a materials analyst whose testimony on behalf of the asbestos industry has been accepted in lawsuits over 250 times, found its crayons tested negative for asbestos. In spite of that, in June 2000 Binney & Smith, the maker of Crayola, and the other makers agreed to stop using talc in their products, and changed their product formulations in the United States.
On July 12, 2018, a Missouri jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay a record $4.69 billion to 22 women who alleged the company's talc-based products, including its baby powder, contain asbestos and caused them to develop ovarian cancer.
Six mineral types are defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as "asbestos" including those belonging to the serpentine class and those belonging to the amphibole class. All six asbestos mineral types are known to be human carcinogens. The visible fibers are themselves each composed of millions of microscopic "fibrils" that can be released by abrasion and other processes.
Blue asbestos (crocidolite). The ruler is 1 cm.
Chrysotile, CAS No. 12001-29-5, is obtained from serpentinite rocks which are common throughout the world. Its idealized chemical formula is Mg3(Si2O5)(OH)4. Chrysotile appears under the microscope as a white fiber.
Chrysotile has been used more than any other type and accounts for about 95% of the asbestos found in buildings in America. Chrysotile is more flexible than amphibole types of asbestos, and can be spun and woven into fabric. The most common use was corrugated asbestos cement roofing primarily for outbuildings, warehouses and garages. It may also be found in sheets or panels used for ceilings and sometimes for walls and floors. Chrysotile has been a component in joint compound and some plasters. Numerous other items have been made containing chrysotile including brake linings, fire barriers in fuseboxes, pipe insulation, floor tiles, residential shingles, and gaskets for high temperature equipment.
Amphibole class fibers are needle-like. Amosite, crocidolite, tremolite, anthophyllite and actinolite are members of the amphibole class.
Amosite, CAS No. 12172-73-5, often referred to as brown asbestos, is a trade name for the amphiboles belonging to the cummingtonite-grunerite solid solution series, commonly from South Africa, named as a partial acronym for "Asbestos Mines of South Africa". One formula given for amosite is Fe7Si8O22(OH)2. Amosite is seen under a microscope as a grey-white vitreous fiber. It is found most frequently as a fire retardant in thermal insulation products, asbestos insulating board and ceiling tiles.
2Si8O22(OH)2. Crocidolite is seen under a microscope as a blue fiber.
Crocidolite commonly occurs as soft friable fibers. Asbestiform amphibole may also occur as soft friable fibers but some varieties such as amosite are commonly straighter. All forms of asbestos are fibrillar in that they are composed of fibers with breadths less than 1 micrometer in bundles of very great widths. Asbestos with particularly fine fibers is also referred to as "amianthus".
Other regulated asbestos minerals, such as tremolite asbestos, CAS No. 77536-68-6, Ca2Mg5Si8O22(OH)2; actinolite asbestos, CAS No. 77536-66-4, Ca2(Mg,FeII)5(Si8O22)(OH)2; and anthophyllite asbestos, CAS No. 77536-67-5, (Mg,FeII)7Si8O22(OH)2; are less commonly used industrially but can still be found in a variety of construction materials and insulation materials and have been used in a few consumer products.
Other natural asbestiform minerals, such as richterite, Na(CaNa)(Mg,FeII)5(Si8O22)(OH)2, and winchite, (CaNa)Mg4(Al,FeIII)(Si8O22)(OH)2, though not regulated, are said by some to be no less harmful than tremolite, amosite, or crocidolite. They are termed "asbestiform" rather than asbestos. Although the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has not included them in the asbestos standard, NIOSH and the American Thoracic Society have recommended them for inclusion as regulated materials because they may also be hazardous to health.
World production of asbestos (metric tons) from 1900 to the present, also including a trend line.
In 2017, 1.3 million tonnes of asbestos was mined worldwide. Russia was the largest producer with 53% of the world total, followed by Kazakhstan (16%), China (15%), and Brazil (11.5%). Asia consumes some 70% of the asbestos produced in the world with China, India and Indonesia the largest consumers.
All types of asbestos fibers are known to cause serious health hazards in humans. Amosite and crocidolite are considered the most hazardous asbestos fiber types; however, chrysotile asbestos has also produced tumors in animals and is a recognized cause of asbestosis and malignant mesothelioma in humans, and mesothelioma has been observed in people who were occupationally exposed to chrysotile, family members of the occupationally exposed, and residents who lived close to asbestos factories and mines.
During the 1980s and again in the 1990s it was suggested at times that the process of making asbestos cement could "neutralize" the asbestos, either via chemical processes or by causing cement to attach to the fibers and changing their physical size; subsequent studies showed that this was untrue, and that decades-old asbestos cement, when broken, releases asbestos fibers identical to those found in nature, with no detectable alteration.
Researcher using a fiber length classifier to produce length-selected fibers of asbestos for toxological studies.
The United States remains one of the few developed countries to not ban asbestos which is legal and still widely used in such commonly used products as clothing, pipeline wraps, vinyl floor tiles, millboards, cement pipes, disk brake pads, gaskets and roof coatings.
In 1989 the EPA issued the Asbestos Ban and Phase Out Rule but in 1991, asbestos industry supporters challenged and overturned the ban in a landmark lawsuit: Corrosion Proof Fittings v. the Environmental Protection Agency. Although the case resulted in several small victories for asbestos regulation, the EPA ultimately did not put an end to asbestos use. This ruling leaves many consumer products that can still legally contain trace amounts of asbestos. For a clarification of products which legally contain asbestos, read the EPA's clarification statement.
In 2010, Washington State banned asbestos in automotive brakes starting in 2014. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), has set limits of 100,000 fibers with lengths greater than or equal to 5 µm per cubic meter of workplace air for eight-hour shifts and 40-hour work weeks.
In Vietnam, asbestos is not banned and still widely used. Vietnam is one of the top 10 asbestos users in the world with an annual import volume of about 65,000-70,000 tons of chrysotile. About 90% of the imported asbestos is used to produce about 100 million m2 of roofing sheets of cement-roofing (asbestos-cement). According to one study, among 300 families in Yen Bai, Thanh Hoa, 85% of households use asbestos roofing sheets, however, only 5% know about their harms.
However, in the project of adjusting the master plan for construction materials development to 2020 with orientation to 2030 submitted by the Ministry of Construction to the Government in January 2014 still suggests to continue using chrysotile for a long time.
The use of crocidolite (blue) asbestos was banned in 1967, while the use of amosite (brown) asbestos continued in the construction industry until the mid-1980s. It was finally banned from building products in 1989, though it remained in gaskets and brake linings until 31 December 2003, and cannot be imported, used or recycled.
Asbestos continues to be a problem. Two out of three homes in Australia built between World War II and the early 1980s still contain asbestos.
The union that represents workers tasked with modifying electrical meter boxes at residences stated that workers should refuse to do this work until the boxes have been inspected for asbestos, and the head of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has called on the government to protect its citizens by ridding the country of asbestos by 2030.
Handlers of asbestos materials must have a B-Class license for bonded asbestos and an A-Class license for friable asbestos.
The town of Wittenoom, in Western Australia was built around a (blue) asbestos mine. The entire town continues to be contaminated, and has been disincorporated, allowing local authorities to remove references to Wittenoom from maps and roadsigns.
From December 31, 2018 it was illegal to import, manufacture, sell, trade or use products made from asbestos. There are exemptions for its use in the chlor-alkali industry, the military, nuclear facilities and for magnesium extraction from asbestos mining residues.
Revelations that hundreds of workers had died in Japan over the previous few decades from diseases related to asbestos sparked a scandal in mid-2005. Tokyo had, in 1971, ordered companies handling asbestos to install ventilators and check health on a regular basis; however, the Japanese government did not ban crocidolite and amosite until 1995, and a near complete ban with a few exceptions on asbestos was implemented in 2006, with the remaining exceptions being removed in March 2012 for a full-fledged ban.
In 1984, the import of raw amphibole (blue and brown) asbestos into New Zealand was banned. In 2002 the import of chrysotile (white) asbestos was also banned. In 2015 the government announced that the importation of asbestos would be completely banned with very limited exceptions (expected to be applied to replacement parts for older machines) that would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
North-west of Nelson, in the Upper Takaka Valley is New Zealand's only commercially harvested asbestos mine. A low-grade Chrysotile was mined here from 1908 to 1917 but only 100 tons was washed and taken out by packhorse. A new power scheme enabled work to renew and between 1940 and 1949, 40 tons a month was mined by the Hume Company. This continued to 1964, when, due to the short length of its fibre, the limited commercial viability forced mining to cease.
In May 1997, the manufacture and use of crocidolite and amosite, commonly known as blue and brown asbestos, were fully banned in South Korea. In January 2009, a full-fledged ban on all types of asbestos occurred when the government banned the manufacture, import, sale, storage, transport or use of asbestos or any substance containing more than 0.1% of asbestos. In 2011, South Korea became the world's sixth country to enact an asbestos harm aid act, which entitles any Korean citizen to free lifetime medical care as well as monthly income from the government if he or she is diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease.
In the United Kingdom, blue and brown asbestos materials were banned outright in 1985 while the import, sale and second hand reuse of white asbestos was outlawed in 1999. The 2012 Control of Asbestos Regulations state that owners of non-domestic buildings (e.g., factories and offices) have a "duty to manage" asbestos on the premises by making themselves aware of its presence and ensuring the material does not deteriorate, removing it if necessary. Employers, e.g. construction companies, whose operatives may come into contact with asbestos must also provide annual asbestos training to their workers.
Fiberglass insulation was invented in 1938 and is now the most commonly used type of insulation material. The safety of this material has also been called into question due to similarities in material structure. However, the International Agency for Research on Cancer removed fiberglass from its list of possible human carcinogens in 2001 and a scientific review article from 2011 claimed epidemiology data was inconsistent and concluded that the IARC's decision to downgrade the carcinogenic potential of fiberglass was valid (however, this study was funded by sponsored research contract from the North American Insulation Manufacturer's Association).
In 1978, a highly texturized fiberglass fabric was invented by Bal Dixit, called Zetex. This fabric is lighter than asbestos, but offers the same bulk, thickness, hand, feel, and abrasion resistance as asbestos. The fiberglass was texturized to eliminate some of the problems that arise with fiberglass, such as poor abrasion resistance and poor seam strength.
In Europe, mineral wool and glass wool are the main insulators in houses.
Many companies that produced asbestos-cement products that were reinforced with asbestos fibers have developed products incorporating organic fibers. One such product was known as "Eternit" and another "Everite" now use "Nutec" fibers which consist of organic fibers, portland cement and silica. Cement-bonded wood fiber is another substitute. Stone fibers are used in gaskets and friction materials.
Another potential fiber is polybenzimidazole or PBI fiber. Polybenzimidazole fiber is a synthetic fiber with a high melting point of 760 °C (1,400 °F) that also does not ignite. Because of its exceptional thermal and chemical stability, it is often used by fire departments and space agencies.
The demolition of buildings containing large amounts of asbestos based materials pose particular problems for builders and property developers – such buildings often have to be deconstructed piece by piece, or the asbestos has to be painstakingly removed before the structure can be razed by mechanical or explosive means. One such example is the Red Road Flats in Glasgow, Scotland which used huge amounts of asbestos cement board for wall panelling – here British health and safety regulations stipulate that asbestos material has to be removed to a landfill site via an approved route at certain times of the day in specially adapted vehicles.
In the United States, the EPA governs the removal and disposal of asbestos strictly. Companies that remove asbestos must comply with EPA licensing. These companies are called EPA licensed asbestos contractors. Anytime one of these asbestos contractors performs work a test consultant has to conduct strict testing to ensure the asbestos is completely removed.
Asbestos can be recycled by transforming it into harmless silicate glass. A process of thermal decomposition at 1,000–1,250 °C (1,800–2,300 °F) produces a mixture of non-hazardous silicate phases, and at temperatures above 1,250 °C (2,300 °F) it produces silicate glass. Microwave thermal treatment can be used in an industrial manufacturing process to transform asbestos and asbestos-containing waste into porcelain stoneware tiles, porous single-fired wall tiles, and ceramic bricks.
The combination of oxalic acid with ultrasound fully degrades chrysotile asbestos fibers.
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McCrone Associates – Atlanta Lab.: Report on the Analysis of Paint CLS-5067-1 and Mineral Filler CLS-N-439-1. To Unspecified Paint Company 23 September 1992. (Submitted to Public Comments Record – C. W. Jameson, National Toxicology Program, 10th ROC Nominations "Talc (containing asbestiform fibers)". 2 June 2000.
Langer, A. M., Nolan, R. P. (November 2000) "Mineralogical Characterization of Vanderbilt Talc Specimens & Comparison of the 1976 Rohl Talc Report to NIOSH and Analysis Performed in 1988". In Public Comments – Nat'l Toxicology Program 10th ROC review. W. Jameson NIEHS MED EC-14, 79 Alexander Drive Research Triangle Park, NC "Talc (containing asbestiform fibers)".
United States Department of the Interior: Selected Silicate Minerals and Their Asbestiform Varieties by W. J. Campbell, et al. (Bureau of Mines Information Circular, I. C. 8751). Washington, D.C.: Dept. of the Interior, Bureau of Mines. (1977).
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Gamble, JF (1993). "A nested case control study of lung cancer among New York talc workers". International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health. 64 (6): 449–56. doi:10.1007/BF00517952. PMID 8458662.
^ Dement, JM; Brown, DP (1982). "Occupational exposure to talc containing asbestos". American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal. 43 (6): A24–5. PMID 7113917.
^ Hull, M. J.; Abraham, J. L.; Case, B. W. (2002). "Mesothelioma among Workers in Asbestiform Fiber-Bearing Talc Mines in New York State". Annals of Occupational Hygiene. 46: 132–135. doi:10.1093/annhyg/46.suppl_1.132.
^ Bellon, Tina. "Jury orders J&J to pay $4.7 billion in Missouri asbestos cancer case". U.S. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
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^ a b "Asbestos – History and Uses". Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. 31 August 2007. Archived from the original on 28 December 2007.
^ Flanagan, Daniel M. (31 January 2018). "Mineral Commodity Summaries 2018" (pdf). Reston, Virginia: U.S. Geological Survey. p. 27. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
^ "Asbestos" (PDF). U.S. Geological Survey Mineral Resources Program. January 2016. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
^ Tsujimura, Tatsuya (18 November 2014). "Japanese docs trying to stop all asbestos use in Asia". The Japan Times. Tokyo. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
^ "Asbestos" (PDF). U.S. Geological Survey Mineral Resources Program. January 2010. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
^ Straif, K; Benbrahim-Tallaa, L; Baan, R; Grosse, Y; Secretan, B; El Ghissassi, F; Bouvard, V; Guha, N; Freeman, C; Galichet, L; Cogliano, V; WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer Monograph Working Group (2009). "A review of human carcinogens—Part C: Metals, arsenic, dusts, and fibres" (PDF). The Lancet. Oncology. 10 (5): 453–4. doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(09)70134-2. PMID 19418618.
^ Kanarek, M. S. (2011). "Mesothelioma from Chrysotile Asbestos: Update". Annals of Epidemiology. 21 (9): 688–97. doi:10.1016/j.annepidem.2011.05.010. PMID 21820631.
^ Marbbn, C.A. (2009). "Asbestos Risk Assessment". The Journal of Undergraduate Biological Studies: 12–24.
^ "Investigation of the chrysotile fibres in an asbestos cement sample (2006) - HSL/2007/11], p.26 onward" (PDF).
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^ "Mesothelioma in Australia". Asbestos.com. Retrieved 13 December 2012.
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^ "Building unions seek laws to clear asbestos". The Sydney Morning Herald. SydenyMorningHerald.com. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
^ "Unions warn on meter board asbestos". Australian Associated Press. Retrieved 10 August 2013.
^ "All buildings should be cleared of asbestos by 2030 to save future generations". ACTU. 16 September 2011. Archived from the original on 13 April 2014.
^ Asbestos use banned on all products from this month. Etoday.co.kr. Retrieved on 2015-10-17.
^ Smartt, Pamela (2004). "Mortality, morbidity, and asbestosis in New Zealand: the hidden legacy of asbestos exposure". The New Zealand Medical Journal. 117 (1205): U1153. PMID 15570336.
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^ Francesco Turci; Maura Tomatis; Stefano Mantegna; Giancarlo Cravotto; Bice Fubini (2007). "The combination of oxalic acid with power ultrasound fully degrades chrysotile asbestos fibres". Journal of Environmental Monitoring (10): 1064–1066.
Castleman, Barry I. (1996). Asbestos: Medical and Legal Aspects. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Aspen Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7355-5260-9.
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Tweedale, Geoffrey (2000). Magic Mineral to Killer Dust Turner & Newall and the Asbestos Hazard. Oxford Univ. Press. p. 336. ISBN 978-0-19-829690-4.
Asbestos general article and chrysotile specifically: comprehensive coverage of all aspects of chemistry, biological interactions, destruction, and social/clinical scientific knowledge related to Asbestos, on the Toxicology Data Network, with full library of cites on many aspects and sub-topics].


More Pieces of the Puzzle for Inuvik – One Big One….
I've begun the planning for a trip to the Northwest Territories next summer. This will involve buying a new bike and a bunch of gear to deal with the conditions of traveling in the far north.


The aim of the course is to provide students with some essential elements for understanding the Italian legal system.
Specifically, the subject of the course will be the study of the Italian Constitution, the structure of Italian Criminal and Civil Codes, as well as some theoretical investigations in criminal and constitutional matters.
Learning Outcomes: recognize the fundamental principles of the Italian; constitution Use Italian Civil and Criminal Law; recognize the basic structure of a crime.
The course is intended for students, scholars or workers who are interested in the topics of the course. No prior knowledge is required as regards Italian Law.
The teaching approach will be based on video-lessons without intermediate tests of any kind. It includes five macro-topics, which are in turn divided into several sub-sectors that are explained through individual video lessons.
Per completare il corso, scaricare l'attestato di partecipazione e ottenere l'open badge, lo studente dovrà superare con successo le prove di valutazione presenti nel corso.


Replacing miners and block producers with smart contracts.
Smart Blockchain is the new generation of Blockchain networks that will allow one or more smart contracts to collect accurate and flawless data from the successful transactions of a decentralized network at the moment of transaction occurrence, and simultaneously storing and registering these data in new blocks. Smart Blockchain needs neither the financial institution nor intermediary, in addition, there will be no task to do for miners and block producers in this technology. In other words, within Smart Blockchain, always one or more smart contracts like a financial institution, free of charge and automatically record and store transactions 'data in new blocks.
The authors of the article are Ms. Somayyeh Gholami and Mr. Mehran Kazeminia and it is written in Persian and English versions in April 2019.
How does Smart Blockchain work?
In Smart Blockchain, one or more Block Producer Smart Contract (BPSC) is present in the decentralized network, and no successful transaction is performed without BPSC involvement. For a successful transaction in the network, first, the sender must send the cryptocurrency to the wallet of BPSC and then BPSC sends cryptocurrency automatically to the receiver. This simple action has led the BPSC to have all network transactions' data accurately and flawlessly and then as an accurate and trust financial institution, record transactions' data into a new block and add this new block to the end of the blockchain and so there will be no tasks to assign to miners and block producers.
What are the benefits of Smart Blockchain?
At the moment of transactions occurrence, the correct and flawless data of transactions are stored and registered. In this case, there is no need to generate some alternatives from a block like what they do in Bitcoin network, Ethereum network, etc., and then the miners choose the correct and valid block by spending so much money, consuming huge power electricity and using a variety of proof mechanisms.
Staggering power consumption is the result of the use of the proof-of-work mechanism or the proof-of-stake mechanism, or….. Which Smart Blockchain does not require any of them at all. Unfortunately, the electricity consumption of one single bitcoin's transaction is 200,000 times more than electricity consumption of a one single VISA's transaction. The annual electricity consumption used to store and register the entire Bitcoin's transactions is more than 50 terawatts (1 TWh = 3 600 000 000 000 000 J) that is equal to the annual power consumption of a country with ten million populations. The study was published in October 2018 on global climate change, which showed that in less than three decades, Bitcoin mining could increase global temperatures more than 2 degrees Celsius.
Fortunately, Smart Blockchain transactions and regular Visa Card transactions won't differ on power consumption. The data stored by the BPSC is flawless because it is registered at the moment of the transaction occurrence automatically and without human interference. Smart Blockchain simply can end the nightmare of spending extra tens TWh electricity.
What is the use of Smart Blockchain?
First use: In networks like Ethereum, EOS, etc. which is possible to register and deploy the smart contracts, simply we can set up a dedicated blockchain for each new smart contract. In this way, as soon as the new smart contract is launched, a BPSC will be launched, and from the very beginning, all of the transactions of a smart contract will be stored and registered into the BPSC's ledger. In this case, the dedicated blockchain will not need any data from Ethereum blockchain, EOS, etc., and it will work independently. Meanwhile, at coding, this BPSC can be coded and launched separately, or BPSC codes can be imported into the desired smart contract codes.
Second use: For each Ethereum networks, EOS, and etc. that allow registering and deploying the smart contracts, the whole existing Blockchains can be replaced with Smart Blockchain. To do this, after launching a dedicated BPSC into the network, the precise and final status of all existing wallet is to be made available to the BPSC, Also thereafter all the subsequent network transactions will be done via BPSC.
Third use: If we want to use Smart Blockchain for networks such as Bitcoin which is not possible to set up any smart contract, we should first launch a new decentralized network that allows registration and deployment of smart contracts like the Ethereum network. Then, in this new network, we design and activate a block producer smart contract BPSC. After assuring of the functionality of BPSC on the new network, we must ask all Bitcoin owners to get the equivalent of their bitcoin, from the new Blockchain's cryptocurrency, and at the same time, their initial bitcoin should be burned. These are done by the BPSC of a network, and the BPSC can record the initial balance of any wallet in the network and begin its work immediately.
In the first stage, by registering and deploying a smart contract, we create one million AKA Token of the ERC20 type at once and all tokens will be in the wallet of the contract (AKA wallet). In this example, we want to set up a new blockchain to record transactions of these one million AKA Tokens. The new smart blockchain is completely independent and does not require main Ethereum's blockchain data. It means that if the Ethereum blockchain was stopped for any reason, for example, the miners and block producers stopped working; the new Smart Blockchain will continue to work.
AKA Tokens can be sent from the wallet of the senders only to the wallet of BPSC, and the BPSC will instantaneously send the token to the original receiver. By this simple method, BPSC, in the role of an accurate and trusted financial institution, will have transactions' data.
For data of each successful transaction, the BPSC ledger will be updated immediately.
At the desired time interval, the BPSC adds new transactions' data to the end of the chain as a new block.
Assume that all AKA tokens are purchased by four persons in equal numbers. So you need to send two hundred fifty thousand AKA Token to each buyer. Of course, for doing this, first, the AKA tokens should be sent to the wallet of BPSC and BPSC will immediately send them to the wallet of the buyers.
Now the BPSC can update its entire ledger and record the data of these transactions in the first block. In continuation, if one of the owners of Aka Token, for example, sells 100,000 Aka Tokens to another, the seller will still send the 100,000 Aka Token to BPSC and BPSC immediately sends Aka Tokens to the buyer. Anyway, no transaction is considered as a successful transaction without BPSC involvement, which is why BPSC can continuously update its ledger and record transactions' data in the new blocks.


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The chair of the NAACP calls on faith leaders to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS.
July 13, 2015 • By Roslyn Brock
Rosyln Brock
As our nation mourns the nine lives massacred in a Charleston, South Carolina, church or wrestles with the threat of excessive police force that has led to the tragic deaths of multiple unarmed African American men and women, we cannot lose sight of the one thing we must work earnestly to protect — our health.
Violence is not the only thing wreaking havoc on our communities, and if we are not careful we could lose a generation to a preventable disease — HIV.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, African Americans are the ethnic group most affected by HIV, and despite the progress our nation has achieved over the past several decades in HIV awareness, it is clear that Black America continues to bear the brunt of health inequities that make HIV prevention a challenge.
As we think critically about the challenges facing Black Americans and other people of color in the United States, it becomes more and more evident that there are common threads underlying their reality. Social isolation, economic deprivation, over-criminalization and a lack of access to quality services are part of the daily experience of too many people in our country, especially African Americans.
These factors impact not only how we live, but also our health. Within two decades, HIV/AIDS has become a disease that primarily affects Black people. Today, African Americans represent the greatest percentage of new HIV infections, and black Americans from teens to early baby boomers are being infected with the disease.
At a critical time when there is so much to be done, we need our churches to step up as they have so many times in the past. Just as black churches as under siege, so are black bodies. We need our faith leaders to step in and lend their voices and commitment to a national movement to reverse the course of this disease in our communities, and we urge them to understand the connection between HIV/AIDS in Black America and the ongoing struggle for equity.
Since 2010, the NAACP has been actively involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the Black community. Our work has led us to reach out to young people and adults; we've also developed efforts to partner with the faith community. And our work continues.
On July 12, 2015, we will recognize our fourth annual Day of Unity — a day when faith leaders across the nation unite to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS as a health and social justice priority and to bring forth a unified voice for systemic and institutional change. On this day, we ask faith leaders preach about HIV/AIDS from the pulpit by integrating HIV messaging into their sermons. We also ask them to use social media to create a forum for open dialogue that encourages people to get informed about HIV; and host community events that include HIV testing and actively engage their congregants in advocating on behalf of those at risk for or affected by HIV.
Awareness and a heart for fairness are the foundation of activism. Please join us on July 12 for Day of Unity and show your commitment to equity and social justice for our communities and for all in our country.
#NAACP
NAACP to Expand HIV/AIDS Program for Black Churches
NAACP Launches Day of Unity to Inspire Pastors on HIV/AIDS
Discussing the Church and HIV Stigma with Terry Angel Mason
Cancer Fighters
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On today's episode of The Art of Paid Traffic we're again talking about one of my favorite topics, sales funnels, but this time I'm taking you behind the scenes and sharing details of my own business and how I'm working to create funnels in it.
If you've been listening from the beginning of the podcast, you know one of my goals here is to share my own personal experiences with paid traffic and such, and today's episode is an example of that.
We've talked a lot about sales funnels here on the show and I'll be the first to admit that I've needed a lot of help when it came to getting better funnels in place for my business.
It's really the whole reason I switched to Infusionsoft in October of last year from Ontraport. I wanted to create logical and better funnels as they've been all over the place.
— I had people coming into rickmulready.com, opting-in, and getting a ton of valuable information from me but it doesn't lead to an offer at all.
— I have a streaming Facebook ads for beginners online workshop, that people are signing up for but I'm not doing anything with the people who don't progress after the free workshop. They get through the funnel and then they sat there. No bueno.
— You may have even noticed yourself if you've previously signed up for one of my many podcast giveaways, you get whatever the bonus is and then that's it! I need to do a better job of building a relationship with you.
— And one of the biggest areas for improvement, lacking a "general nurture" campaign. This is where you offer content, helpful tips and advice, book recommendations, etc. I've wanted to put a campaign like this into place for a long time.
As you can see, I have a lot of areas where I'm leaving money on the table.
Creating better sales funnels will help plug a lot of those holes.
My guest today, Ely Delaney from YourMarketingUniversity.com, heads-up the team that I'm working with to create better sales funnels and improves everything I've just mentioned.
In one part of Ely's business, he and his partner Cindy strategize sales funnels with you for your business and even create and implement them if you want.
And that's how we're working together right now.
We had a strategy call, we mapped out my entire business from a strategic sales funnel perspective and now they're creating and implementing everything for me (I just have to create all the content).
Today with Ely you'll learn more about the process I went through with he and his partner, he'll break down a sales funnel strategy, what types of sales funnels you need to have in your business, if you already have funnels in place, what you need to look out for, how to create funnels for your business when you're not using software like Infusionsoft or Ontraport and a whole lot more.
Will the New Facebook Lead Ads Be Worth the Wait?


Off the Bedford-Nostrad G stop is a delicious café, restaurant, and bar called the Colador. You can catch a Mets game there, grab a bite, or sip one of their beers on tap. One things I really love about the Colador is that they always have a very unique selection of drafts. Gabe, of the band Trash Gendar, (above) tried Ballast Point's Habanero Sculpin. A light hoppy brew with a kick in every sip, it was too spicy for me! I'm going to stick to their other Sculpin flavors (like pineapple and grapefruit). I drank the much less spicy New Belgium Slow Ride Session IPA, a very fruit-flavored IPA.
On to the food! I will have to confess that I have only tried the Panini's at Colador, but they do have a full breakfast menu, salads, burgers, and quesadillas. The other evening, I tried the ham and cheese Panini, a crunchy, delicious, and filling meal. And their fries! Try them with an extra side of the chipotle sauce for dipping. Crisp, not too greasy, these fries are perfection. If you are in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn and looking for a quick meal or a cold beer and the Mets game, stop by the Colador Café.
Good fries are essential! 🙂 We'll definitely tuck this in our back pocket and check it out if we're in the area!


Great Tips That Will Help You in Choosing the Great Managed Service Provider Services.
Managed services is one of the major and fastest growing sectors when it comes to the business technology landscape in the modern world. Many firms have come to be using the managed service to too ensure that that they are well managed in various shapes and scopes to ensure that your business is operated in the right manner. There is need to ensure that you are able to work with a professional service provider who will be there for you any time of the day and ensure that you get to recover from a downtime fast.
There are times that technical hitches may develop and this may result to slow activities at the store and poor ways of accessing the remaining stock. This is because you would not be having the right contacts for the experts who would fix or update your MSP systems.
In this case, when you are looking for the best MSP system installers, you need to ensure that you get full details of the company if you work with speculations you may fail. You need to take time and ensure that you settle with a service provider who is well known, a person who just known how to operate a computer would not help you at all. You need to be aware that there are companies that are not registered and it would be like scamming you as they will not offer you the right MSP services in the proper manner. You need to ensure that you use services that will help you save money in the process.
The experience of the company or dealer that you are working with need to be verified in such a case. If the service provider provides to offer professional and relevant services, you need to take time and settle with them once more. You would not like the service providers to tamper with your back up data, take time to ensure that you save the right details so that you remain safe. When you take the initial step of working with an honest and trust worth MSP service provider, you will be able to enjoy great services as the data for your company will be backed up in the right manner.
Another thing that you would be advised to check is the spare parts you buy for your device to ensure that you get to monitor a business from any place that you may be. Some spares would not work well on your device; this is the reason you need to ensure that you get in touch with a service provider who has good intentions for your business by offering you professional services.


ICANN's board of directors will next week vote on whether to redelegate .ml, the country-code top-level domain for the war-torn nation of Mali, to a new registry operator.
The ccTLD is currently delegated to Societe des Telecommunications du Mali (Sotelma), a publicly traded telecommunications provider, but it's not currently possible to register a .ml domain.
The reasons for a redelegation are never publicized by ICANN until after they are approved, when IANA publishes a redelegation report, so it's not yet clear what's going on this case.
Mali has been hitting headlines in Europe recently due to the French involvement in government efforts to retake the northern parts of the country from Islamist rebels.
Following the outbreak of hostilities a year ago, in March 2012 the Malian government was overthrown in a coup d'état that was widely condemned by the international community.
Following sanctions the military quickly ceded power to an interim president, who continues in the role today ahead of elections to find a more permanent successor, scheduled for July.
France, supported by allies including the UK, moved in to help Mali retake the north last month.
Sotelma is based in the capital, Bamako, which is not held by rebels.
The redelegation of .ml is on the main agenda — rather than the consent agenda, which is usually the case for redelegations — for ICANN's board meeting next Thursday.
The University of Puerto Rico has accused the manager of the .pr top-level domain of hoodwinking ICANN in order to "illegally" take over the registry.
It recently filed a lawsuit seeking to regain control of .pr, saying that the current registry operator has made an estimated $2 million from domain registrations since it somehow took over the ccTLD.
The lawsuit and other documents tell a remarkable story, one in which a University department quietly spun itself out as a private for-profit company and took .pr with it.
If the claims are true, ICANN may have made a huge screw-up by inadvertantly allowing the ccTLD to be transferred from the University into private hands.
That's the Sponsoring Organization. The administrative and technical contacts also stated that UPR was in charge of the domain. The contact email address was @uprr.pr, the University's domain.
The University is no longer listed. The contact email addresses are now @nic.pr. These new details have been in effect apparently since some time in 2007.
To my eye, this looks like the stewardship of .pr was transferred from one organization, the University of Puerto Rico, to another, Gauss Research Laboratory Inc.
But IANA never produced a redelegation report – as it must when a registry changes hands – and the ICANN board never voted to redelegate.
Since the underlying organization performing registry services for .PR did not change (it was Gauss Laboratory before and after the change), this is not considered a full redelegation, and therefore does not result in a public report with board approval.
But the University claims that long-time manager Oscar Moreno set up Gauss as a non-profit organization to handle .pr when he retired from UPR, then in 2007 changed it to the for-profit corporation that is now the designated registry manager.
A 2009 letter from UPR to ICANN general counsel John Jeffrey (pdf), which emerged on mailing lists last week, said Moreno was trying to sell his company, and the ccTLD, to a third party.
IANA, according to the letter, was fooled into thinking the University backed the transfer of control due to a letter from a faculty member who did not have the authority to authorize the changes.
The University sued Moreno in late May (pdf), seeking an injunction ordering him to transfer .pr back to UPR and to return the $2 million it believes .pr domain sales have raised since 2007.
IANA redelegations are rarely straightforward.
A recent report from the Country Code Names Supporting Organization found that ccTLD redelegations have been basically a bloody mess – unpredictable, opaque and poorly documented.
ICANN does not discuss IANA requests, but I'm currently aware of a handful of ongoing redelegation battles, such as those over Niue's .nu and Rwanda's .rw.
It is suspected that Irish operator IEDR is currently trying to have .ie taken away from its nominal sponsor, University College Ireland, which has put the fear into at least one registrar.