Have you ever seen the effects of asbestosis,
mesothelioma, or any of the various asbestos-related cancers that have
killed or destroyed the livelihood of a close fried or relative?
Believe me, some very powerful and influential figures have succumbed
to these illnesses, so it is not just confined to manual workers
working in factories or building sites where asbestos was involved.
As
early as 1898 the then Chief inspector of Factories in The United
Kingdom in his report to Parliament submitted in his report regarding
the ‘evil effects of asbestos dust.’ He described it even all those
years ago as having a sharp, glass like nature, very susceptible to
disintegrating into minute particles, which then very easily permeated
every nook and cranny in a building, or even a district where such a
product was in use.
Litigation due to industrial exposure to
asbestos remains the longest, most expensive joint claim in the world,
with over 6,000 defendants, and at the latest count well over 600,000
claimants. With the current rate of detection of asbestos related
diseases set to rise over the next decade, estimates of the litigation
costs on the US alone is expected to rise to well over $250 BILLION.
You would have thought that with such amounts at stake, anybody still
manufacturing products based on asbestos or any asbestos-related
products would be taking an enormous financial risk.
In early
times items made of asbestos were held in great esteem, especially by
Kings and Emperors, and of equal value to gold. Many in fact were
cremated in an asbestos shroud, to keep their ashes separate from any
other combustible materials. How rash was that! In fact, talking of
rashes, although asbestos fibres when coming into contact with the skin
causes rashes, there are stories from ancient times that asbestos was
actually prescribed for ailments of the skin – especially the itch.
Although
there are many forms of asbestos, they all have the same characteristic
to a greater or lesser degree, that eventually however they may be
packaged up within another material, they will all form asbestos dust
particles at some point in their life.
Due to asbestos’s
fire-retarding properties, until the late 1980’s there were many
applications within public and private buildings where asbestos in one
form or another was used. Acoustic ceilings, putty, vinyl floor
coverings, fire-retardant fillings, adhesives and ceiling tiles,
acoustic curtains in theatres, and in brake disk pads in cars, busses
and trains, clutch plates, gaskets, fire blankets – the list is
endless, as is the lurking danger.
In fact, many a worker in the
American shipyards during the Second Word War were heavily exposed to
this asbestos danger, and even some top people were affected and struck
down with asbestosis, mesothelioma, or asbestos-induced cancers of some
sort.
Now, with many asbestos based products no longer allowed in
new construction, there must be thousands upon thousands of sites where
asbestos is still lurking, and even demolition and or removal creates
its own hazard conditions.
Interestingly, in the interest of
‘profit’ there are still a number of applications where asbestos is
still in use, and can even be found in some consumer products, such as
talcum powder.
In all, the list of asbestos based products is still scarily quite long.
Asbestos-cement
corrugated and flat sheets; asbestos clothing for heat resistant
applications, pipe line wraps, roofing felt, and many applications in
the auto industry, including automatic transmission system components,
clutch plates, friction pads such as disk brake pads and so forth are
still being manufactured.
How many of us have smelt the acrid fumes when a train applies it’s brakes in your local station?
Because
of all this historical use of asbestos, we are all constantly exposed
to certain levels of asbestos dust. These are usually quite low levels
(between 0.00001 to 0.0001 fibres per millilitre of air we breathe)
with the higher levels predominately in towns and cities. Some drinking
water can also contain asbestos fibres from natural sources, but this
is usually very closely monitored.
Where asbestos removal takes place, whole buildings have to be hermetically sealed to try and trap the bulk of the dust.
If
you have been unfortunate enough to breathe large quantities of
asbestos dust, either in a short burst, or over a period of years the
effects are usually very much the same.
1. This dust, on the
lungs and the membranes inside us, will eventually cause scar like
tissues in the lungs, and in the pleural membrane (lining) surrounding
the lungs. This ‘asbestosis’ as it is known will usually cause
coughing, difficulty in breathing, and sometimes, enlargement of the
heart. Asbestosis is very serious, and often results in death. However,
it is usually confined to those who worked in the asbestos industry.
2.
Lower levels of intake of this deadly dust may cause changes called
plaques in the pleural membranes. Effects here are not as serious as
with asbestosis, but restricted breathing may still take place.
3.
Any irritation of the lungs, or any other membrane in the body will
have a marked increase in the formation of cancers, and lung cancer and
mesothelioma, which is a cancer of the thin lining (pleural membrane)
surrounding the lungs is a well-know side effect of breathing asbestos
dust.
4. Children are particularly at risk, as how many of them
may play around old buildings, and take great pleasure in smashing up
old sheets of asbestos, not realising that they are really playing with
something more deadly than an unexploded time-bomb.
As a
successful property renovator, and provider of buildings for my
property club members, asbestos is of a very serious concern to me.
In
all, asbestos, although having served mankind “Faithfully?’ down
throughout the ages, has now been identified as the spectre of danger
that it presents, but unfortunately we have been mining the stuff for
centuries, so it will not go away quietly, and without a fight.
Hence the massive levels of lawsuits piling up surrounding all forms of asbestos.
Copyright 2006 Geoff Morris
