BREATH TAKEN:
The Landscape and Biography of Asbestos
The following images were taken as part of the mixed media documentary, Breath Taken: The Landscape and Biography of Asbestos, an Exhibition by Bill Ravanesi. The Center for Visuals Arts in the Public Interest traveled the work from 1990-2005 across America, from Boston to Alaska.
Our knowledge of asbestos as a major medical, legal, and social problem has tended ironically to obscure the reality of asbestos as a profound human tragedy that many families have lived and continue to live through. Many of the sufferers looked healthy, yet would soon die from the ravages from asbestos exposure. The insidious hidden nature of asbestosis helped obscure the real suffering of its victims, revealed in the exhibition by photographically documenting the progression of exposure from apparent health to death.
The Breath Taken Exhibition, through its inclusion of both contemporary and vintage images, narrative, industry advertisements, and objects, provided comprehensive awareness of this human tragedy.
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Contributors to the Story of Asbestos
Tony "The Tiger" Mazzocchi, Labor Leader, Activist
Tony Mazzocchi, known as “Tony the Tiger” for his tenacity, was one of the greatest labor leaders of the 20th century in America. He became focused on toxic chemicals, including the dangers of asbestos in the workplace. In the late ‘70s Tony and his wife, Susan Mazzocchi, went into their child’s school in New Jersey, with evidence that the school building was filled with asbestos fibers at levels that exceeded OSHA’s workplace standards. School officials ignored them. Tony and Susan flexed their organizing muscles, and a week later 1,000 protesters appeared in front of the school. The resulting newspaper coverage made asbestos exposure in schools a national issue.
In The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor: The Life and Times of Tony Mazzocchi, author and labor expert Les Leopold recounts the life of the late Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union leader. Mazzocchi's struggle to address the unconscionable toxic exposure of tens of thousands of workers led to the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and included work alongside nuclear whistleblower Karen Silkwood. His noble, high-profile efforts forever changed working conditions in American industry and made him enemy number one to a powerful few.
Barry Castleman, holding a bottle of table salt contaminated with asbestos, 1989
Mr Castleman is an author, journalist and lecturer who has reported on and analyzed the tragedy of global asbestos exposure. He is tireless global advocate on the toxic health issues and risks of asbestos disease.
Mr Castleman wrote, Canada’s Growth Market: Asbestos Cancer in the Third World in the Breath Taken Monograph and was a panelist for Breath Taken conferences that accompanied the exhibition on the national tour.
Barry Castleman's book, Asbestos: Medical and Legal Aspects, has become the definitive resource on the medical and legal aspects of asbestos. The book is in its 5th edition, and provides a comprehensive examination of the public health history of asbestos, from the origins of industrial use to the present. The book covers in detail asbestosis and cancer, and company knowledge of asbestos hazards, gleaned from countless depositions, company records, industry consultants and trade associations.
Paul Brodeur, New Yorker Writer
Paul Brodeur, a New Yorker writer for almost 40 years whose books include: Outrageous Misconduct-The Asbestos Industry on Trial, Expendable Americans, The Asbestos Hazard, and Asbestos and Enzymes (describing the nationwide health hazards posed by exposure to asbestos).
Mr Brodeur penned one of the articles in the Breath Taken Monograph, The Asbestos Tragedy, and was a panelist for Breath Taken conferences that accompanied the exhibition on the national tour.
Paul Brodeur's book: Outrageous Misconduct—The Asbestos Industry on Trial is based upon a four-part series of articles that first appeared in The New Yorker, and won the Association of Trial Lawyers of America Special Literary-Public Service Award. The book is an invaluable sourcebook for both lawyers and lay readers alike.
Jim Fite, Executive Director of the White Lung Association, Baltimore
James (Jim) Fite is a labor activist and former White Lung Association (WLA) Executive Director and National Secretary, and has fought on behalf of an estimated 23,000 victims with cancer and other grave illnesses against unfair settlements, ,and stalling techniques that withheld court awarded payments from affected victims.
Mr. Fite is a former shipyard worker, with significant exposure to asbestos in the 1970s . He currently has lung disease.