Asbestos Exposure and General Overview of Asbestos
Although
asbestos is known today as an extremely hazardous material, and the cause of several devastating diseases, it was once considered to be very nearly miraculous. Dating back to the Greeks, who wove the mineral fibers into cloth for use as funereal garb and napkins, asbestos has long been valued for its ability to withstand fire and extreme temperatures, as well as for its tensile strength, durability and chemical stability. In fact, it is these "miracle" qualities that have led people in the past to ignore or downplay the risks to human health that asbestos poses.
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Asbestos is found in twenty of the United
States, as well as in Canada, the former Soviet Union, South Africa, Italy, China, Greece, and India. Asbestos is generally divided into two categories, serpentine and amphibole. The first commercial asbestos mine was developed beginning in 1879 in the Appalachian foothills of Quebec.
Asbestos is not just one single mineral, but a naturally occurring group of silicate minerals which are composed of long, fibrous crystals, which can be found across the globe. Chrysotile, the only asbestos mineral in the serpentine group, accounts for nearly 95% of all the asbestos used in the United States. Serpentine asbestos, as the name implies, has a snake-like structure with long, wavy fibers. The other type, amphibole, can be further divided into five groups - amosite, crocidolite, anthophyllite, tremolite and actinolite. These types of asbestos have sharp, needle-like fibers.
Used by many different cultures during many different eras, asbestos' popularity really began to soar during the Industrial Revolution, as mechanized processes of production required improved methods of fireproofing and insulation from heat. Factories which used boilers, steam pipes and turbines, as well as steam-powered ships and railroads, all required effective ways to protect workers from the risk of fire. Since that time, asbestos has been used in an extensive array of products, including insulation, fire retardant coatings of all kinds, bricks and concrete materials, pipes, cement, acoustic ceiling tiles, floor tiles, drywall, joint compound, outdoor furniture, protective clothing, gloves, small kitchen appliances, stage curtains and fire blankets, roofing shingles, plaster, adhesive, automotive brake pads, and even cigarette filters, to name but a few.
As asbestos use has become more widespread, so has awareness of the illnesses that asbestos exposure can cause. Although the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder had noticed that slaves who wove the asbestos cloth were more prone to lung-related sickness, it wasn't until the early part of the 20th Century that medical science caught up. The term "asbestosis" was coined in 1927, the same year that the first workers' compensation claim for asbestos disease was brought in the United States. The rare asbestos cancer commonly known as mesothelioma was first diagnosed in the 1930s. Scores of studies and reports outlining the dangers of working with asbestos were conducted throughout the remainder of the century, but numerous manufacturers and corporations colluded to either suppress or minimize information about these dangers.
It wasn't until the 1970s and 1980s, therefore, that public outcry over the continued use of asbestos products despite their hazardous nature finally resulted in substantive action being taken for the good of the public health to limit the use of asbestos and asbestos exposure.
In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency issued an Asbestos Ban and Phase Out Rule in 1989. However, this was overturned in 1991, thereby allowing a variety of consumer products to legally contain trace amounts of asbestos. Other, mostly western, countries have followed suit, banning the import of asbestos-containing material and regulating the removal and disposal of existing materials.
Several industries have seen substantially greater than normal risk for exposure to asbestos, and to the diseases that may result. Mines, chemical plants, power plants, aluminum plants, oil refineries, shipyards and construction sites are some of the most common sites where asbestos is prevalent, and where employees could face a risk of asbestos-related disease. Asbestos was widely used during the years when many schools were being built to accommodate baby boomers and their children, so schools often have high concentrations of asbestos-containing material. Additionally, asbestos use was actually mandated by the military in the years preceding World War II, so Navy veterans or anyone who worked in a shipyard also has an elevated risk of asbestos illness due to asbestos exposure.
For some time, asbestos was considered relatively safe when it remains intact, but when the asbestos-containing material becomes "friable" - meaning that it is structurally weak and can be broken with even minimal pressure or contact, the asbestos fibers can break into many microscopic fibers, which are respirable. This particulate or dust remains airborne for hours, and is easily inhaled by anyone who is not outfitted in protective gear. It can also cling to fabric and other materials, causing secondhand asbestos exposure.
Asbestos exposure over a period of time can be devastating to your body, When asbestos fibers are inhaled, they can be absorbed into the lungs or other organs, or into soft tissues such as the mesothelium - a membrane which lines many of the body's internal organs and cavities. Once in place inside the body, the fibers can cause normal cells to turn malignant and metastasize, leading to lung cancer or one of three main types (Pleural Mesothelioma, Pericardial Mesothelioma, or Peritoneal Mesothelioma) of a rare but fatal form of cancer malignant mesothelioma.
Asbestosis, a non-malignant lung disease, and pleural plaques, pleural efflusions or pleural thickening can also be a result of asbestos exposure; some research has shown that other forms of cancer, including colorectal, gastrointestinal, kidney and brain cancers may be linked to asbestos as well, although this research is inconclusive.
Mesothelioma is a particularly devastating disease, as it typically takes up to 50 years to become symptomatic and, therefore, be diagnosed. Rarely is a mesothelioma case diagnosed in the early stages of the disease. It is much more common for a later stage to be diagnosed, and for the patient to die within months of that diagnosis. The average life expectancy for a mesothelioma patient is eighteen months. Currently, there is no cure for the cancer, although traditional mesothelioma treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation, outpatient procedures to remove excess fluid from the chest, and surgery (if the cancer is caught early enough) may be offered. These may stop or slow the progression of the cancerous cells, or provide more comfort to the patient.
Medical research dollars are being apportioned to mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases, but since the latency period of this cancer is so long, and the asbestos-containing building materials and other products have only begun to be phased out and abated from existing buildings, oncologists expect the number of mesothelioma deaths to increase, and to peak worldwide between the years 2010 and 2017.