Asbestos - Nellie Kershaw's story
In the late nineteenth century asbestos was regarded as a 'marvellous mineral'. Its fire resistance meant it was used widely. Then Nellie Kershaw, an asbestos spinner, died and things began to change.
Turner Brothers Asbestos was once the largest asbestos producer in the world. It owned mines in Canada and southern Africa as well as factories in the north of England which processed the mineral into a spun yarn. In the early twentieth century the company boasted that 'new uses for asbestos are constantly being discovered, the industry may be regarded as having touched only the fringe of its immense possibilities'. Then, in 1924, an asbestos spinner named Nellie Kershaw died and things began to change.
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