Slashdot Mirror
Asbestos-Related Deaths Up
jlowery writes "Seems that asbestos deaths have skyrocketed recently, which isn't suprising one you learn that it takes 40-45 years after exposure for peak deaths to occur. Reminds me of the time 25 years ago me and Dad were replacing the brakes on my old Datsun 510 and blew out the brake residue with compressed air. Dusty."
Does anyone else remember using asbestos modeling compound in elementary school in the '60s? It was served up as a powder (!) on small plywood work boards used at our desks. We added water, mixed into a play doh like consistency, and made sculptures.
"Reminds me of the time 25 years ago me and Dad were replacing the brakes on my old Datsun 510 and blew out the brake residue with compressed air. Dusty."
Yeah, any time you blow your nose and it comes out black, you have to wonder how much ended up in your lungs!
Been there, done that... a lot more careful now.
- Preferences: Solaris 10 (servers), Ubuntu (desktops), Solaris 11 (personal servers) -
The current building I work was built back in the 50's, it's one of the oldest buisness buildings in the whole city. When we moved in to the office we were told we were not allowed to put up pact poles for power/network cabling.
Upon furthur discovery we found there were large amounts of asbestos in the walls/ceiling. The building management company tried to say it was contained (which it was not) and then told us not to go to the WCB by threatening us with issues with our lease. We did go to the WCB and the building was closed (all 7 floors, yet we were on just 1 floor) to have the asbestos sealed/contained.
As this was all discovered we were still in the process of moving (only myself and 1 other guy were in the new place to setup the enviroment), so it didn't cause many problems it just delayed our move by a couple of days. I also filed with the WCB for record I've been exposed, I was told the odds of having any harm done from only a month of exposure is rare if none, but it's still recorded just in case for later in life.
We're still in the building to this day with the sealed asbestos and nothing happened with the management company and their idle threat.
Check out Mon and Mon.cgi
Several years back I was working at the Shoal Bay Receiving Station, just outside of Darwin Australia. A bunch of guys turned up, drilled holes in the airconditioning ducts, (large pipes running around the ceiling - fun to climb on when playing 'the floor is lava'), stuck a camera in and discovered they would be spending the next few months removing huge amounts of the stuff.
:-)
They placed several sensors about the building to detect airborn particles, though they were suspiciously quiet about the test results.
I sure hope I never end up dead from it....
Wonder if any other slashdot readers spent time at the bay...
RTFA.
The article says: Asbestos-related deaths have increased fourfold in the past three decades, according to a new CDC report.
Three decades is not recent and fourfold over 3 decades is not a skyrocket.
Lung cancer from asbestos is no joke. I lost my father-in-law to it and my grandfather to blacklung. Report the news, but report it honestly.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
A while back, a guy I knew who worked in insulation quipped that most of the asbestosis deaths he knew of were heavy smokers to begin with, so what he postulated was that it was more that the asbestos compounded the smoking related junk. Anyone know if there is truth to that one, or is he just...well, blowing smoke?
This sig no verb.
The analogy is not perfect, because we do have substitutes for asbestos for most purposes. Yet we should look at the harm prevented by asbestos as well as the harm it causes, and not create worse harm from non-asbestos risks just to avoid the boogieman of the day.
Sustainability and energy independence essay
When I was a kid, my grandmother's brother, who worked at the asbestos mines in, well, Asbestos, QC, Canada, gave me a bunch of small baby food glass jars filled with asbestos at all the stages of processing, from the raw ore to the stuff that the mines sent to various industries.
I never bothered to open the jars to play with it, so it's probably a good thing.
Incidentally, my great-uncle didnt die from asbestos-related disease, but from diabetes complications.
I'm in the process of buying an old house (built in 1905!), so I've done quite a bit of research recently on Asbestos (and lead paint).
The epa has a pretty good section devoted to it. I also found The Asbestos Tragedy to be enlightening and more than a bit disturbing.
Asbestos, the state rock of California, is a mineral fiber. It's a rock that can be woven into fabric. It's very strong, chemically resistant, and fireproof. Being a natural substance, it's around us all the time and is part of the environment - as the rocks erode, the dust containing asbestos fibers are picked up by wind. (When an asbestos containing product is releasing fibers, it's termed friable).
It was used in a wide variety of household materials for decades. Things like heating system insulaton, vinyl/asphalt/rubber tiles, vinyl floor backing and adhesives, joint compounds, texturized paint, stove-top pads, oven mits, etc.. It was even used as stage curtains in theaters because of it's resistance to flame.
If it's in good condition (non-friable), meaning not cracking, crumbling, on an impact surface or otherwise releasing dust, then it's usually harmless if left alone. If it's friable though there are two methods for taking care of it - encapsulation (which is a temporary solution and must be maintained) and removal. Most states specify that only a licensed contractor or homeowner (friends and relatives can help, but cannot be paid, and all regulations must be followed) can deal with it.
When exposed to asbestos it will usually be caught by the mucus in the lining of your nose, mouth, and throat. This eventually gets swallowed (or hacked up I suppose). What's swallowed passes through you and winds up passing through and out of your digestive tract.
All it takes however is a single asbestos fiber to get past that defense system and get trapped in your lungs to potentially cause cancer. But like most cancers it's hit or miss who will be affected.
Oh, remember that part about it being a naturally occuring substance? It is quite possible that you could be exposed just by breathing fresh clean air.
The worst part is that it takes 20-40 years for any signs to show up, there's no way to test for it besides using x-rays to see if there's visibly damaged lung tissue, and there's no treatment. Our house inspector has had 3 friends die in the past 5 years or so due to asbestos.
Which brings me back to the house I'm buying - we found obvious asbestos insulation on the old radiator heating system under the house. The seller is going to have professionally removed (licensed asbestos contractor).
But there may still be asbestos lurking in other places. The texturized ceilings in a few rooms will have to have tested (the current owners have had the place ~10 years, and don't know exactly when it was painted) for both asbestos and lead before we do anything with them. Testing runs about $25-50 per sample.
Lead paint is much much easier to deal with. Blood levels can be monitored, encapsulation products are easy to apply (special paint,kinda pricey but much cheaper than abatement), and for wood surfaces the newer soy gel paint strippers make it much safer for do-it-yourselfers.
Basically we're going to have to be very careful and meticulus about any work we decide to do or have done to make sure our home is safe.
The most dangerous exposures to asbestos occurred in the process of removing it. The stuff is perfectly safe in slabs between sheetrock. When you start tearing it out you create all sorts of poisonous asbestos dust. But try telling that to Chicken Little Americans who go into hysterical panics over anything containing the phrase cancer-causing.
You can tell a great deal about the character of a man by observing those who hate him.
n/t
Sustainability and energy independence essay
The state rock is Serpentinite, which may contain Asbestos.
Owning a house built in 1909, I've read about asbestos and most of the people who get cancer from it (mesothelioma) were in construction, shipbuilding and other heavy industries that used a lot of asbestos. These people received prolonged heavy exposure to it, often for decades. If you haven't worked in these industries between 1900 and 1980, I think you have little to fear. The spike can easily be accounted for by the length of time the cancer takes to develop. It will probably rise for another decade or two, then fall off.
As far as single exposure or limited exposure goes, it is highly unlikely that that alone will cause cancer. It is simply not that toxic, few things (that you are likely to come in contact with) are.