3 ms·
All forms of it are potentially harmful, but some forms of it are more easily broken down and go airborne making it easier to breath it in. It is nearly identic
by AngryData 8y ago
All forms of it are potentially harmful, but some forms of it are more easily broken down and go airborne making it easier to breath it in. It is nearly identical to breathing in ceramic dust, the finer it is easier it is to ingest it and the less likely your nose and throat will catch the particles before it enters your lungs and can no longer be expelled.
- HillaryBriss 8y agoi agree with you. i believe asbestos is unsafe and we should not be releasing more of into the environment by adding more of it to building materials and other industrial products. but, a perhaps surprising thing about our lungs is that they can expel some of the inhaled asbestos fibers. but, in some people that's just not good enough: they still get sick. (another risk factor, smoking, increases one's chance of mesothelioma from inhaled asbestos fibers) asbestos fibers are everywhere. a very substantial fraction of US residents have some asbestos fibers in their lungs because of natural background levels and/or contamination of the urban environment by industrial asbestos from past decades. during the 9/11 attacks, significant quantities of asbestos became airborne in NYC. asbestos fibers are quite durable. they don't break down into safe substances or disappear from the environment on their own.