Disparate Lives, Fractured Mineral: Toxic Displacement in the Global Economy of Asbestos

Abstract: The established scientific reality of asbestos is that (a) asbestos is toxic at a minuscule dose, and (b) exposure should be avoided whenever possible, with the evidence expanding almost exponentially over the past century. The purpose of this research is to explore the historical and global socio-natural entanglements of the economy of asbestos and the resulting mechanisms at play to occlude and marginalise the toxicity and emphasise profitability. Therefore, the aims are threefold. First, the work will uncover and critically examine (utilising critical discourse analysis) asbestos product advertisements and related documents, specifically a selection of Eternit (asbestos-cement) variants from Skandinaviska Eternit AB in Sweden. A secondary goal is to compare the often antithetical stance, evidenced by their marketing strategies, of the asbestos-cement industry with those exposed victims confronted with the toxic realities frst hand. Thirdly, the research will evince the global reach and attendant forms of environmental, toxic, and entropic displacement of the economy of asbestos vis-à-vis the omnipresent yet prosaic use of its products. Finally, these three attritional types of displacement are posited as prototypical instances of slow violence, extrapolating from an ecological Marxist framework in dialogue with perspectives in environmental public health and post-humanism.