Our asbestos collections provide first-hand evidence of the fight to gain scientific acceptance of the lethal effects of exposure to asbestos, the international campaigns to ban the substance, and efforts to get compensation for the victims of asbestos-related disease.
These papers, gifted to the University by the son of Michael Brazier this year, are fascinating in that they document the asbestos debate from the point of view of an asbestos company.
Michael Brazier was the grandson of Albert Alfred Brazier, the founder of A.A. Brazier & Co. This company was started in the 1920s as a UK distribution arm of the Johnsons Asbestos Company, which was based in Thetford Mines, Quebec. Michael started in the late 1940s learning the asbestos trade, became a company director and then eventually took over as managing director from his father, Wilfred Sydney Brazier.
Michael was passionate in his interest in all the aspects of the asbestos debate, and he was part of the industry delegation to the parliamentary Advisory Committee on Asbestos in 1976-77. Over decades, he carefully collected reports, documents, and publications relating to the asbestos health debate, from the perspective of the asbestos industry. He was particularly interested in whether all forms of asbestos were as dangerous to health.
A collection-level description is available on our online catalogue, including the option to download a detailed box-list for the collection.
The latest collection to join our unique corpus of asbestos-related materials is the Michael Brazier papers on asbestos and the asbestos industry.
Our asbestos collections provide first-hand evidence of the fight to gain scientific acceptance of the lethal effects of exposure to asbestos, the international campaigns to ban the substance, and efforts to get compensation for the victims of asbestos-related disease.
These papers, gifted to the University by the son of Michael Brazier this year, are fascinating in that they document the asbestos debate from the point of view of an asbestos company.
Michael Brazier was the grandson of Albert Alfred Brazier, the founder of A.A. Brazier & Co. This company was started in the 1920s as a UK distribution arm of the Johnsons Asbestos Company, which was based in Thetford Mines, Quebec. Michael started in the late 1940s learning the asbestos trade, became a company director and then eventually took over as managing director from his father, Wilfred Sydney Brazier.
Michael was passionate in his interest in all the aspects of the asbestos debate, and he was part of the industry delegation to the parliamentary Advisory Committee on Asbestos in 1976-77. Over decades, he carefully collected reports, documents, and publications relating to the asbestos health debate, from the perspective of the asbestos industry. He was particularly interested in whether all forms of asbestos were as dangerous to health.
A collection-level description is available on our online catalogue, including the option to download a detailed box-list for the collection.
Further information
(Image credit: Letterhead from A.A. Brazier, Acc 2065: Box 6)