Asbestos

Asbestos is a mineral fiber insulation with sound absorption, insulating, fire retardant and carcinogenic properties. People have been mining the fiber for thousands of years because of most of those properties. Charlemagne supposedly had a table cloth made of the stuff, and wealthy Persians used it like a party trick – amazing guests by cleaning the cloth by tossing it on the fire. By the industrial revolution, asbestos was widely used as insulation. The United States Navy thought these properties were perfect for insulating war ships and used it to insulate thousands of ships in World War II. By the mid 1930s researchers had documented thousands of cases of people developing lung and breathing disorders in asbestos mining towns.

About Asbestos

People didn’t really start noticing asbestos might be dangerous until the first documented asbestos related death in 1906. Researchers began noticing a lot of lung related deaths in asbestos mining towns. By the 1930s, scientists began to associate asbestos with the lung diseases.

Being around an undisturbed piece of asbestos is perfectly safe, but when it gets damaged and the fibers get airborne it gets dangerous. The longer the period of a person inhaling asbestos fibers, the more likely they are to develop the rare lung cancer mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma is a cancer that develops in the layers of tissue that protect the body’s internal organs. It is most common in chest tissue and the pleura, which is the sac surrounding the lungs.

Recent Asbestos Questions

What is the fear of asbestos poisoning?

7 hr 3 min ago - I'm sorry, please try to clarify your question. If you are as...
Why does asbestos cause cancer?

Yesterday, 11:20pm - Yes, the inhalation of asbestos fibers has been proven to cau...
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5 days ago, 4:14pm - If you inhale a small amount of Asbestos in short time, then ...
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