RANDOM FACT #25 - ASBESTOS Was Once Used in Movies as Fake Snow

Enticing brand: But contents are harmful
UKATA / BNPS

Fake snow” is nothing new. People have been attempting to either create or simulate snow since at least the last decades of the 19th century. At that time, it was made from cotton batting. Other methods of simulating fake snow included the use of jeweler’s cotton, popcorn, Epsom salts, ammonia and mica.

In 1928, a fire fighter wrote an article on the subject in which he advised not to use flammable cotton, recommending instead to “use asbestos snow and mica.”

Chrysotile, or “white” asbestos, truly does resemble real snow. Throughout the late 1920s and 30s, artificial snow was marketed under dozens of brand names: “White Magic,” “Pure White,” and “Snow Drift.”

Those who remember the famous poppy field scene in the 1939 MGM film The Wizard of Oz (in which Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale fell asleep) will be appalled to know that the “snow” used in those camera shots was made from 100% industrial-grade chrysotile asbestos—despite the fact that the health hazards of asbestos had been known for several years.

During World War II, the demand for asbestos as fireproofing product aboard U.S. Navy ships and other military applications put an end to the market for asbestos “snow.” (Cited From: Asbestos in Fake Snow -Asbestos.net)


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