Asbestos is a material that’s made from six fibrous minerals. The minerals are mined at places all over the world. Asbestos is known as a heat retardant, and is used in products like roof shingles, car brake pads, gaskets, and floor tiles. For years builders used asbestos wraps to insulate water pipes and heating ducts in homes and industrial buildings. Asbestos uses are wide ranging, and it is still used today in the U.S. in applications where it can be contained effectively.
As far back in history as ancient Rome, asbestos was used for its ability to be exposed to fire and yet not burn. In this era, the wealthy were wrapped in cloths woven from asbestos before being cremated, and household items like tablecloths and napkins were made from asbestos. They were cleaned by being tossed into a fire and then removed after the food burned off. This work was mostly done by slaves, who were exposed to high levels of asbestos as a result. Of course back then, nobody knew that asbestos was a cause of mesothelioma, an aggressive form of cancer.
But while asbestos has some properties that make it very useful in a number of applications, many asbestos uses are also dangerous. People who have been exposed to asbestos may have heart or lung damage or cancer. Too much exposure to asbestos has been proven to be deadly. As long ago as the 1960s, problems with asbestos were being discovered. Now, decades later, a number of lawsuits have been filed by people seeking compensation for the health damage they sustained from inhaling asbestos fibers.
Most of the population has been exposed to asbestos at some time or other. When asbestos products break down, fibers enter the air, and people breathe them. The fibers don’t evaporate, and they do not dissolve in the human body. The fibers simply break down into smaller bits and pieces, u ntil they are microscopic in size. When viewed with a microscope, asbestos fibers look like little spears.
While incidental exposure to fibers from asbestos uses like brake pads isn’t believed to be dangerous, exposure to large amounts of asbestos or repeated exposure to smaller amounts can lead to health problems, and is a leading cause of mesothelioma, which is cancer of the lining of the chest cavity.
Workers who mine for the materials used to create asbestos are at a greater risk for asbestos exposure, as are employees of manufacturing plants where asbestos products are made. People who mine asbestos or make products containing asbestos have a higher risk of dangerous levels of exposure to asbestos than the average person. People living near plants that process asbestos sometimes have a higher risk of inhaling dangerous levels of asbestos too.
Because of widespread concerns over asbestos use s in public facilities, schools, businesses, industrial facilities, and homeowners have taken many steps to remove asbestos from the premises. This process is called asbestos abatement and must comply to very strict procedures so as not to make the asbestos exposure worse. Asbestos removers have to wear protective clothing and masks to protect their own lungs from inhaled asbestos fibers.
In the U.S., asbestos uses have dropped considerably in recent decades, but it is still used widely in developing countries. The milder form of lung disease caused by asbestos is called asbestosis and involves scarring of the lungs. Symptoms that result include chronic coughing and shortness of breath. Currently there is no known cure for asbestosis, and that is why homeowners are encouraged to avoid encountering it.
Those who want to remove an old furnace or put new insulation around water pipes should contact a professional inspector to determine if asbestos is present before starting. Because of asbestos uses in homes and buildings before the 1980s, anyone remodeling an older house should be very careful when restoring or remodeling an older home.
When asbestos is left undisturbed, it isn’t harmful. The problem comes when a material containing asbestos is torn apart, sending asbestos particles into the air. Asbestos abatement is expensive, but the consequences of not using such professionals can be dire. The health problems associated with exposure to asbestos generally don’t show up until many years or even decades after a person is exposed to asbestos fibers. Because it is a leading cause of mesothelioma, asbestos exposure can be extremely dangerous.
Proving where exposure took place isn’t easy unless a person worked in an occupation where he or she contacted asbestos on a regular basis. And sadly, after a diagnosis is made, there is often very little that can be done to treat asbestos related disease or cancer.
Asbestos uses have led to health problems for thousands since it is the leading cause of mesothelioma. The mesothelium is the lining that surrounds the lungs in the chest cavity and the organs of the abdominal cavity. Since asbestos is primarily inhaled, the mesothelium surrounding the lungs is the most likely to be affected. Mesothelioma is an aggressive type of cancer that is difficult to treat with surgery and that spreads rapidly. It has one of the lowest rates of survival of any type of cancer.
With asbestosis, the prognosis isn’t quite so dire, but there is no treatment, and the patient has to live with a cough short breath for the rest of his or her life. In fact, some people with asbestosis require supplemental oxygen eventually.
For those remodeling or restoring an old building, there are tests that can be done for prior asbestos uses in pipe insulation or other applications. Generally, it involves taking a sample of a suspected material – pipe insulation or heat duct wrapping – and sending it to a lab. Some experts recommend that people should hire professionals even for extracting the samples used for testing.
There are also procedures that professional asbestos extractors know about to ensure that the test results are legal and accurate. In some regions, tests for asbestos are required for those buying an older building. In many cases, plumbers and electricians encounter asbestos often enough to know which materials in a building or home should be tested for asbestos.
One later chapter to the 2001 World Trade Center attacks involved workers exposed to asbestos. Because of all the asbestos uses in construction, workers that cleaned up the destruction were exposed to large amounts of asbestos. Asbestos was used on the first 40 stories of the buildings, and much of that was eventually replaced, but there was still asbestos exposure for workers after the towers collapsed. Ground Zero workers were advised to wear protective clothing during clean-up operations.
Because of the long term nature of asbestos damage to the human body, it will probably be several decades before Ground Zero workers discover whether they inhaled dangerous levels of asbestos in the course of their work. While there is a new drug called Alimta that is used in conjunction with other chemotherapy drugs in the treatment of mesothelioma such as Cisplatin there are as yet no drugs that are very effective against mesothelioma unless the disease is caught early, which it hardly ever is.
Asbestos uses have made it a popular building material through the ages, from ancient Rome, where it was used in burial shrouds, tablecloths, and napkins, to modern buildings and homes up to the 1980s for things like pipe insulation and heat duct covering. Left alone, asbestos is relatively harmless. It is only when it is disturbed and broken apart that the fibers can be inhaled. Asbestos uses have unfortunately made it a difficult material to remove safely, and for that reason, people needing asbestos building materials removed should contact professionals who have experience in removing asbestos.