Asbestos is a serious health hazard commonly found in our environment today. It is important for employees who may work in buildings that contain asbestos to know where it is and how to avoid exposure.
What Is Asbestos?
Asbestos is the name applied to six naturally occurring minerals that are mined from the earth. The different types of asbestos are as follows (the top three are most commonly used):
- Amosite (brown/off-white)
- Chrysotile (white) is the most common, but it is not unusual to encounter
- Crocidolite (blue) as well
- Tremolite
- Actinolite
- Anthophyllite
Because asbestos fibers are so small, once released into the air, they may stay suspended for hours or even days.
Usually asbestos is mixed with other materials to form the products. Floor tiles, for example, may contain a small percentage of asbestos. Depending on what the product is, the amount of asbestos may vary from 1%-100%.
Where is Asbestos Found?
Asbestos may be found in many different products and places, such as:
- Ceiling tiles
- Siding shingles on old residential buildings
- Wall and ceiling texture in older buildings and homes
- Floor tiles
- Putties, caulks, and cements (such as in chemical carrying cement pipes)
- Sprayed-on fire proofing and insulation in buildings
- Insulation for pipes and boilers
- Wall and ceiling insulation
- Roofing shingles
- Joint compound in older buildings and homes
- Brake linings and clutch pads
The most common way for asbestos fibers to enter the body is through breathing.
Asbestos is most hazardous when it is friable. The term "friable" means the asbestos is easily crumbled by hand, releasing fibers into the air. Sprayed on asbestos insulation is highly friable. Asbestos floor tile is not.
Pipe and boiler insulation does not present a hazard unless the protective canvas covering is cut or damaged and the asbestos underneath is exposed to the air.
Health Effects
The body cannot break them down or remove them once they are lodged in lung or body tissues, therefore they remain in place where they can cause disease.
There are three primary diseases associated with asbestos exposure:
- Asbestosis
- Lung Cancer
- Mesothelioma
Asbestosis is a serious, chronic, non-cancerous respiratory disease. Inhaled asbestos fibers aggravate lung tissues, which cause them to scar.
Symptoms of asbestosis include shortness of breath and a dry crackling sound in the lungs while inhaling. In its advanced stages the disease may cause cardiac failure.
There is no effective treatment for asbestosis; the disease is usually disabling or fatal. The risk of asbestosis is minimal for those who do not work with asbestos; the disease is rarely caused by neighborhood or family exposure.
Those who renovate or demolish buildings that contain asbestos may be at significant risk, depending on the nature of the exposure and precautions taken.
Lung Cancer
Lung cancer causes the largest number of deaths related to asbestos exposure. The incidence of lung cancer in people who are directly involved in the mining, milling, manufacturing and use of asbestos and its products is much higher than in the general population.
The most common symptoms of lung cancer are coughing and a change in breathing. Other symptoms include shortness of breath, persistent chest pains, hoarseness, and anemia.
People who have been exposed to asbestos and are also exposed to some other carcinogen, such as cigarette smoke, have a significantly greater risk of developing lung cancer than people who have only been exposed to asbestos.
One study found that asbestos workers who smoke are about 90 times more likely to develop lung cancer than people who neither smoke nor have been exposed to asbestos.
Mesothelioma
Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer that most often occurs in the thin membrane lining of the lungs, chest, abdomen, and (rarely) heart. About 200 cases are diagnosed each year in the United States. Virtually all cases of mesothelioma are linked with asbestos exposure.
Approximately 2 percent of all miners and textile workers who work with asbestos, and 10 percent of all workers who were involved in the manufacture of asbestos-containing gas masks, contract mesothelioma.
People who work in asbestos mines, asbestos mills and factories, and shipyards that use asbestos, as well as people who manufacture and install asbestos insulation, have an increased risk of mesothelioma.
So do people who live with asbestos workers, near asbestos mining areas, near asbestos product factories or near shipyards where use of asbestos has produced large quantities of airborne asbestos fibers.
