All About Asbestos

What Is Asbestos?

Asbestos is a mixture of six fibrous silicate minerals that are mined for their useful properties, which include thermal insulation and high tensile strength. The minerals include amosite, chrysotile, crocidolite and the fibrous varieties of tremolite, actinolite and anthophyllite.

Asbestos Uses

Asbestos has been used to produce break pads, clutch parts, roofing shingles, ceiling and floor tiles, asbestos cement products and a lot more.

Asbestos In the Environment

Asbestos occurs naturally and can enter the air and water from the weathering of natural deposits and wear from manufactured asbestos products. Small fibres can remain suspended in the air for some time while larger fibres tend to settle more quickly and lay around on surfaces. Unfortunately, asbestos fibres cannot be broken down or decay, therefore they can remain in the environment for a very long time.

Exposure To Asbestos
Exposure to asbestos usually occurs by breathing contaminated air in workplaces that use or manufacture asbestos or in building that are being renovated or demolished.

Asbestos, a recognized human carcinogen, is known to cause lung cancer and mesothelioma, a lethal tumour of the lining of the chest and abdominal cavities. Exposure to asbestos can also cause asbestosis, a disease characterized by fibrotic scarring of the lung. Soil containing asbestos may pose a risk to the health and safety of people residing in contaminated areas and in the surrounding community, particularly where it is mined.

Drinking water may also contain asbestos from natural sources. Some cement water distribution pipes contain asbestos, but tests have shown that the carcinogenic properties of asbestos in not detectable in this water.

Medical Tests
Chest X-Rays can detect the early signs of lung disease cause by asbestos as can CAT scans. Other tests exist to measure for asbestos in the urine, faeces, mucus or material rinsed out of the lung. Very low levels of asbestos is found in nearly all people, but higher that average levels can only show that you have been exposed to asbestos, but not whether you will experience any health effects from the increased exposure.

Asbestos Banned In The UK
The use of asbestos was finally banned in the UK 1999.

More articles and reading on asbestos can be found below

Asbestos - The Silent Killer
Throughout history asbestos has been used and in some empires valued more than gold itself. For all its glory it has one huge downfall. It was killing people and they did not even know it.