4 ms·

The talk in the trade is that asbestos is way overblown and it mostly affected people installing it in ships for the Navy. They worked in tight spaces with lots

The talk in the trade is that asbestos is way overblown and it mostly affected people installing it in ships for the Navy. They worked in tight spaces with lots of asbestos in the air, lining the ship and its pipes with it, all day every day. I don't know how true that is but I've heard the same exact story from several different contractors. I do know that getting those linoleum/asbestos floor tiles ripped up will cost you a lot to get somebody to do it for you, but there aren't any real safety precautions you need to take since it isn't getting airborne, it's basically just pure profit for the contractor.

Al-Khwarizmi 3y ago
Official statistics (in Spain, which is where I'm from and have read them) don't agree with that. Plenty of construction workers and various related workers, like plumbers, etc. have died from asbestos. As an anecdote, you could even die from asbestos from working at a TV station... The Spanish public TV station used asbestos as insulation in stages and apparently, when there were vibrations from loud sound, applauses, etc., dust particles fell on the workers and public. A famous TV anchor, José María Íñigo, died from that, as well as other workers from the station.
- tetromino_ 3y ago
  There are different varieties of asbestos. None are good for you, but some are far more deadly than others. Western European countries (including Spain, I am guessing) and Australia tended to use the most dangerous varieties of asbestos - crocidolite and amosite. By contrast, North America and ex-USSR countries used the less carcinogenic chrysotile.
  - stephen_g 3y ago
    While blue asbestos was used in some applications, the vast majority of asbestos in Australian homes is chrysolite. There were (and are) still many mesothelioma and asbestos deaths in tradesmen building with chrysolite containing products here, as well as people whose only known exposure was renovation of houses containing it.
Tangurena2 3y ago
I had some conversations with some folks who worked in asbestos removal. In the US, everyone who touches the stuff owns it forever. The bags used to pack it have the name, license #s and contact info for the company removing it. If the landfill decides 20 years from now that they no longer want it in their landfill, your company gets to pay to remove it and then dispose of it in a new landfill. The general feeling was that every asbestos removal company goes out of business (dissolve, chapter 7) in order to escape the permanent liability of the stuff. At which point it now becomes a SuperFund issue.
thedays 3y ago
Many people underestimate the risks from asbestos as the disease can take 20-40 years to develop after exposure but it shouldn’t be underestimated. Asbestosis killed over 3,600 people in 2015. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbestosis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbestosis Asbestos has affected all sorts or people, not just in the Navy. A close relative of mine who was a plumber has been diagnosed with it and it is an awful disease. This woman is dying from cancer caused by inhaling asbestos dust while washing her husband's work clothes. https://www.thompsonstradeunion.law/news/news-releases/asbestos-disease-news/asbestos-tragedy-for-wife-who-washed-husbands-clothes https://www.thompsonstradeunion.law/news/news-releases/asbes...
- repiret 3y ago
  It’s also that relatively few people are affected. That’s approximately one in 100,000 people, twice as many people in the United States were murdered in 2015. It is really easy to know nobody who died from asbestos.
  - Hikikomori 3y ago
    Is the risk of asbestos exposure when you work in construction as low as someone that doesn't?
    - kristofferR 3y ago
      Depends on your job - new construction shouldn't have anything to do with asbestos at all, but if you work on/demolish old buildings you might. The only reason asbestos is becoming less and less deadly is that we banned it decades ago.
      - Hikikomori 3y ago
        Why are averages relevant when these workers are not getting an average exposure to these materials?
  - lostlogin 3y ago
repiret 3y ago
My understanding is that there is not a very obvious dose response curve for mesothelioma. There are some people who had occupational exposure for their entire working life and don’t get it, while there are some people that had a small number of individual exposures and do get it. I think this is what drives a lot of people to dismiss the risks of asbestos. They work around the stuff and they work with people who work around the stuff and they don’t see people getting mesothelioma, so they assume it’s not a big deal.
lostlogin 3y ago
I used to make a living scanning the lungs of people who were young enough to have been told the risks.

Al-Khwarizmi 3y ago

Official statistics (in Spain, which is where I'm from and have read them) don't agree with that. Plenty of construction workers and various related workers, like plumbers, etc. have died from asbestos. As an anecdote, you could even die from asbestos from working at a TV station... The Spanish public TV station used asbestos as insulation in stages and apparently, when there were vibrations from loud sound, applauses, etc., dust particles fell on the workers and public. A famous TV anchor, José María Íñigo, died from that, as well as other workers from the station.

tetromino_ 3y ago
There are different varieties of asbestos. None are good for you, but some are far more deadly than others. Western European countries (including Spain, I am guessing) and Australia tended to use the most dangerous varieties of asbestos - crocidolite and amosite. By contrast, North America and ex-USSR countries used the less carcinogenic chrysotile.
- stephen_g 3y ago
  While blue asbestos was used in some applications, the vast majority of asbestos in Australian homes is chrysolite. There were (and are) still many mesothelioma and asbestos deaths in tradesmen building with chrysolite containing products here, as well as people whose only known exposure was renovation of houses containing it.

Tangurena2 3y ago

I had some conversations with some folks who worked in asbestos removal. In the US, everyone who touches the stuff owns it forever. The bags used to pack it have the name, license #s and contact info for the company removing it. If the landfill decides 20 years from now that they no longer want it in their landfill, your company gets to pay to remove it and then dispose of it in a new landfill. The general feeling was that every asbestos removal company goes out of business (dissolve, chapter 7) in order to escape the permanent liability of the stuff. At which point it now becomes a SuperFund issue.

thedays 3y ago

Many people underestimate the risks from asbestos as the disease can take 20-40 years to develop after exposure but it shouldn’t be underestimated. Asbestosis killed over 3,600 people in 2015. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbestosis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbestosis Asbestos has affected all sorts or people, not just in the Navy. A close relative of mine who was a plumber has been diagnosed with it and it is an awful disease. This woman is dying from cancer caused by inhaling asbestos dust while washing her husband's work clothes. https://www.thompsonstradeunion.law/news/news-releases/asbestos-disease-news/asbestos-tragedy-for-wife-who-washed-husbands-clothes https://www.thompsonstradeunion.law/news/news-releases/asbes...

repiret 3y ago
It’s also that relatively few people are affected. That’s approximately one in 100,000 people, twice as many people in the United States were murdered in 2015. It is really easy to know nobody who died from asbestos.
- Hikikomori 3y ago
  Is the risk of asbestos exposure when you work in construction as low as someone that doesn't?
  - kristofferR 3y ago
    Depends on your job - new construction shouldn't have anything to do with asbestos at all, but if you work on/demolish old buildings you might. The only reason asbestos is becoming less and less deadly is that we banned it decades ago.
    - Hikikomori 3y ago
      Why are averages relevant when these workers are not getting an average exposure to these materials?
- lostlogin 3y ago

repiret 3y ago

My understanding is that there is not a very obvious dose response curve for mesothelioma. There are some people who had occupational exposure for their entire working life and don’t get it, while there are some people that had a small number of individual exposures and do get it. I think this is what drives a lot of people to dismiss the risks of asbestos. They work around the stuff and they work with people who work around the stuff and they don’t see people getting mesothelioma, so they assume it’s not a big deal.

lostlogin 3y ago

I used to make a living scanning the lungs of people who were young enough to have been told the risks.