Asbestos asbestos

Asbestos is an evil product. I am a carpenter/builder and I am always concerned about the risk from it. I never used to be despite the warnings about the product. Then, my father got sick, no energy, could not breathe properly, constantly out of breath. The doctors did explorative surgery and found he had mesathealoma and there was nothing they could do. I helped nurse him at home for the 3 months he had left. It is an evil way to die and I would not wish it on my worst enemy.
It is wrong to think random people don't die from asbestos related diseases as they do. You just have to be in the wrong place and breath in a single microscopic fibre.
To those who think it is not that dangerous I hope you never have to find out that you or someone close to you has been exposed and has an asbestos related cancer.
What is really bad is from the research we did, James Hardie new of the dangers of the product from very early and deliberately only employed older people to work with it as they knew they would die before the 20-40 year delay for an asbestos related disease would show up.

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Originally Posted by PAT303

If asbestos is so dangerous why don't we have people dying in major cities from inhaling all the asbestos dust from all the cars driving around?,three years ago a test in Perth still found it floating around,you don't see all the street traders dying off,funny thing about it is people jump up and down about it yet quite happily smoke. Pat

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We do , that's why the claim fund is not expected to reach it's peak for over a decade. But if your unlucky enough to get the fibres from some wannabe Reno block rules hacking away at an old fibro wall, your not going to be at work by the time it hits.
Some of the problems are, it's started to decay, as the sheets have aged they are not holding together as well as new. Then you have house fires, as the stuff doesn't burn you'd think no worries, wrong. Once it gets hot enough it explodes into a cloud of dust, great for a fire fighter or any neghbours.
These are the reasons why any rainwater collected in cities, (NSW has had basix for a long time which legislated all new homes had to have water tanks) is not for drinking. Asbestos, combined with all the other industrial dust /motor vehicle fallout would quickly reduce the urban population.

Here's the stupid thing about smoking, from studies they found the heavy, chain smokers working in those industries had a lower rate of asbestos related illness, basically they where sucking their air through a filter!

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Originally Posted by frantic

We do , that's why the claim fund is not expected to reach it's peak for over a decade. But if your unlucky enough to get the fibres from some wannabe Reno block rules hacking away at an old fibro wall, your not going to be at work by the time it hits.

Some of the problems are, it's started to decay, as the sheets have aged they are not holding together as well as new. Then you have house fires, as the stuff doesn't burn you'd think no worries, wrong. Once it gets hot enough it explodes into a cloud of dust, great for a fire fighter or any neghbours.

These are the reasons why any rainwater collected in cities, (NSW has had basix for a long time which legislated all new homes had to have water tanks) is not for drinking. Asbestos, combined with all the other industrial dust /motor vehicle fallout would quickly reduce the urban population.



Here's the stupid thing about smoking, from studies they found the heavy, chain smokers working in those industries had a lower rate of asbestos related illness, basically they where sucking their air through a filter!

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And the fibres that did get in got stuck in the tar and didn't get into tissue

used to blow out brake drums in the late 70's and pretty sure brake linings were still made of asbestos back then :(
Seems to be quite a few mechanics who worked with asbestos brake linings getting asbestos related diseases.
Brake Mechanics | Turner Freeman WA

I served on ships with asbestos steam pipe lagging. I was an ERA [ engine room articifer] We breathed the dust in, doing maintenance , it seems to be a random killer. A lot of my mates have died from asbestos related diseases, I have two plural plaques on my lungs, which I have been told is the bodies way of dealing with antibodies.[ asbestos] It forms a plaque over something it senses is a threat, and isolates it from the body, so to speak. I have been told my fitness level from playing rugby, helped my body to form the plaques. I love rugby. I hate asbestos, too many mates gone. And, I feel like a ticking bomb. Bob

I hate the stuff,we come across it everywhere,particularly in schools.

Mate of mines wife died from it,got it from his clothes.
Like many things,strange how it affects some,not others.
He was a carpenter,hasn't been affected by it,and recons some days they couldn't see from one end of the work shed to the other for the asbestos dust.

The other day,we had to screw a piece of hat section,four self tappers into an asbestos wall at a school,so had to do the job after hours...

Last week,the guy across the road replaced the liner in his pool,which is in his front yard,the old one had asbestos in it.They blocked the street off while they pulled it apart and put it in big sealed bags.Then they vacuumed everywhere and took the bags with them.

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Originally Posted by frantic

basically they where sucking their air through a filter!

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Same with large A/C systems.

We get customers complaining the A/C is giving them this and that,bla,bla.

So we have the air inside tested,at their expense,and it is actually cleaner inside the building then the air outside.Even the fresh air makeup is always filtered as well.
Done this heaps of times at different sites,the result is always the same.

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Originally Posted by Meken

But just 1 fibre in your lungs may kill you 30 years later :(

- however it does seen overkill for one small piece that could be removed without the risk of breaking - in Queensland you don't need a licence to remove something like up to 10m2 - you still need to follow the recommendations (wet the board, protective gear breathing apparatus correct disposal (not just in skip) and keep people away from work area.

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Well I should have died 20 years ago. Being a retired spanner for years I used to on a daily basis put a car on the hoist, remove the brake drums(remember them) and fill the workshop with dust.

Now I know that only a percentage of this dust is asbestos. I have worked in places that were brake specialists, just did brakes all day long.

In 1990 I moved house and the one I purchased had an asbestos sheet garage that was not suitable so I demolished it. Back then there was no recycling, so we just had a full size wheelie bin. Guess where it all went. Back in the ground where it came from.

Now don't get me wrong, this is an evil stuff if you inhale enough of it and I have no problems with protecting workers that work with it on a regular basis. But what happened with the OP's case had me:Rolling:

In the mid 90's the school that my two children attended, who were at the time aged 7 & 9, did some major renovations. During this asbestos was found and the school was closed and the usual circus was put into place.

I had no issues with my two children being there had school continued. What really makes me laugh is that it can't be used in gaskets any more.

I can really see a head gasket giving me asbestos poisoning.

I reckon this stuff is viewed, incorrectly, to be worse the the ebola virus.

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Originally Posted by amtravic1

Asbestos is an evil product. .... ...You just have to be in the wrong place and breath in a single microscopic fibre. ...

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Agree with the first part, and sorry to hear about your father. However most people in australia would have at least one asbestos fibre in their lungs.

I suspect that the danger is different for different forms of asbestos - the term covers multiple minerals, the most common being white and blue, the latter being the most dangerous apparently.

One interesting question - for about ninety years asbestos was the major component of all brake linings. What happens to them? they mostly turn to dust, which is dispersed into the air, mostly in our cities - which is where most of the cars are. Yet we do not see city wide epidemics of asbestos diseases, instead we see in almost all cases a distinct link to specific intense exposure.

The biggest home owner problem is probably since people started using power tools on fibro.

John