It’s snowing asbestos!
QUESTION Is it true that white asbestos fibre was used as fake snow in some winter scenes of classic Hollywood films? If so, are actors and film crew known to have suffered from the effects? Until the late twenties, filmmakers used various tricks to create the illusion of snow.
in Charlie Chaplin’s 1925 film the Gold Rush, salt and flour were used, but most studios preferred to use cotton batting as a cheap alternative — until 1928 when the los Angeles fire department pointed out that the cotton was a fire hazard and recommended studios instead used asbestos as a ‘risk-free’ alternative.
Regrettably, the practice caught on among film studios and, from the thirties to the Fifties, asbestos snow with names such as Pure White, White Magic and Snow Drift was prevalent.
Perhaps the most well-known movie application of this is the Wizard Of Oz (1939). Filming the poppy field scene at MGM’s studio required ‘planting’ 40,000 artificial flowers into the floor of the set.
the snow was sent by Glinda the Good Witch to break the flowers’ spell placed on Dorothy and her friends by the Wicked Witch of the West. the artificial snow was, in fact, industrial grade chrysotile, otherwise known as white asbestos.
Another famous film that used chrysotile was Holiday inn (1942), starring Bing Crosby, with the final scene depicting snow falling as he sang White Christmas. But four years later Frank Capra’s it’s A Wonderful life saw an end to the use of asbestos snow.
Russel Sherman, RKO’s head of special effects, had developed a form of ‘quiet’ non-crunchy snow for the film, combining Foamite from fire extinguishers, water, sugar and soap flakes. the sprayable foam could then be applied to large areas quickly and efficiently and could even be blown into the air by wind machines. it’s difficult to estimate the damage caused by fake snow. Most asbestos applications involved some quantity of the fibre being used within a machine component or as part of a chemical compound that bound the fibres up,
making QUESTIONS Q : Why do professional footballers suck their thumbs when they score a goal?
Mrs D. A. King, Bexley, Kent. Q : Was the water supply on Masada in Israel, where Jews were besieged by Roman forces, derived from an artesian well or was the water transported there by slaves? R. D. Summers, Beckenham, Kent. Q : My grandfather was a boxer around in the Thirties, known as Kid Ballysax. Are there any official records of his bouts? Tony Slipman, Hexham, Northumberland. them difficult to inhale until the material became worn or damaged.
Fake snow, however, was simply pure white asbestos fibres. Anyone who had contact with this material was inhaling it in dangerous quantities.
However, asbestos fake snow was not used for extended periods and temporary or one-time exposure is less dangerous than continuous exposure.
Several famous actors have died from mesothelioma, a fatal disease caused by asbestos exposure.
Steve McQueen (1930-1980, pictured inset below left) was diagnosed in 1979. He believed asbestos used in stage insulation and in stunt clothing might have contributed to his illness.
Ed lauter (1938-2013) appeared in more than 200 films and tV series, and is perhaps best known for his role as Captain Wilhelm Knauer in the longest Yard (1974). He died of mesothelioma in 2013 and his family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against, among others, CBS and nBC.
tough guy actor Paul Gleason (19392006), known for his roles in films such as the Breakfast Club, trading Places and Die Hard, died of mesothelioma in 2006. He believed he was exposed to asbestos while working in construction jobs as a teenager.
American sportsman Merlin Olsen (1940-2010) played football for the los Angeles Rams. later, as an actor, he starred in tV’s little House On the Prairie and Father Murphy. He was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2009 and died less than a year later.
Before his death, Olsen filed lawsuits against 25 defendants including nBC Studios and 20th Century Fox, claiming the studios exposed him to asbestos.
James Lees, Brimstage, Wirral. QUESTION Which dictators attended British public schools? tHiS might seem rather likely, but there are not many examples. Swaziland is the last remaining absolute monarchy in Africa whose king, Mswati iii (born in 1968) ascended the throne in 1986. Because he’d been educated in England at £35,000-a-year Sherborne School in Dorset, it was hoped that he would modernise his kingdom.
But Swaziland is still rife with government corruption, financial waste and overspending on its profligate royal family. Mswati’s regime has been accused of extrajudicial killings by his forces, along with arbitrary arrests, detentions and unwarranted searches and seizures of homes and property.
it has been criticised for discrimination against women and minority groups, particularly homosexuals. And the king, who currently has 15 wives and 25 children, has also been accused of kidnapping women he desires to marry.
Sheikh tamim bin Hamad Al thani, Emir of Qatar, another absolute monarch, was also educated at Sherborne and subsequently at Harrow School, where he did his A-levels in 1997. He then attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, graduating in 1998.
Hassanal Bolkiah, Sultan of Brunei, and Sheikh Khalifa, Emir of the United Arab Emirates, also attended Sandhurst.
two dictators who received higher education in Britain were Syrian President Bashar- a l - Assad, who received postgraduate training in ophthalmology at the Western Eye Hospital; and former Malawi dictator Hastings Banda, who had a medical degree from the University of Edinburgh.
Jacob Waldmann, Datchet, Bucks.