If you are in a building anywhere in the world that was built before the 70’s/80’s, there is a very high chance it’s got asbestos in it. They used it for everything because it’s cheap and durable and has useful properties. Similar to things like lead paint.
IIRC, the only problem with asbestos is when you tear up/demolish a building. Injested asbestos particles cause the health problems. If the building doesn’t suffer any damage, the asbestos remains inert and doesn’t cause any harm.
That is mostly true—many of the products that contain it count as having it encapsulated, so you can leave asbestos tile on a slab and cover it with another material. However if you go to demo the tile, and start hitting it with hammer drills etc. as a frangible material it can become aerosolized and be inhaled in the lungs, where you get the horrible health effects, so you have to follow remediation protocols to do that. Obviously hitting those types of materials with explosives is going to virtually guarantee try st it gets airborne.
That said there were many applications of asbestos, like old wrapped pipe insulation for instance, where the asbestos is already in a spun (think like fiberglass or rock wool) format, and those types of things need to be remediated just for existing as they are hazardous and can leach particles into your environment easily.
At one point, it was thought to be very safe because of its fire resistance, treated as a miracle material. many buildings throughout the world were made with asbestos, and many still exists.
for the most part it is only harmful when disturbed, either when mining and processing, or when destroyed.
Edit: have to add, that I was completely flabbergasted by that, because I thought asbestos was completely illegal like FCKW (sorry, not English native speaker, seems the abbreviation is CFC - the stuff we put into refrigerators before we figured it produces an ozone hole)
Russia mining companies say though, that their asbestos is safe and it’s just western propaganda to keep them out of business)
I think you’ll be surprised at how much asbestos is still used worldwide, including in the US. We’re not using it as wall and ceiling insulation anymore, but it’s still used for things like pipes and vinyl floor tiles.
Why did they build their buildings with aspestoes?
If you are in a building anywhere in the world that was built before the 70’s/80’s, there is a very high chance it’s got asbestos in it. They used it for everything because it’s cheap and durable and has useful properties. Similar to things like lead paint.
IIRC, the only problem with asbestos is when you tear up/demolish a building. Injested asbestos particles cause the health problems. If the building doesn’t suffer any damage, the asbestos remains inert and doesn’t cause any harm.
That is mostly true—many of the products that contain it count as having it encapsulated, so you can leave asbestos tile on a slab and cover it with another material. However if you go to demo the tile, and start hitting it with hammer drills etc. as a frangible material it can become aerosolized and be inhaled in the lungs, where you get the horrible health effects, so you have to follow remediation protocols to do that. Obviously hitting those types of materials with explosives is going to virtually guarantee try st it gets airborne.
That said there were many applications of asbestos, like old wrapped pipe insulation for instance, where the asbestos is already in a spun (think like fiberglass or rock wool) format, and those types of things need to be remediated just for existing as they are hazardous and can leach particles into your environment easily.
At one point, it was thought to be very safe because of its fire resistance, treated as a miracle material. many buildings throughout the world were made with asbestos, and many still exists.
for the most part it is only harmful when disturbed, either when mining and processing, or when destroyed.
And even then, it would likely have to be repeated occupational exposure to cause issues, not a one-off dust event.
This isn’t cyanide or something
problem is you can get a deadly exposure and not realize at the time, because it will take 20 years until the effects destroy your lungs.
Russia still is the largest exporter of asbestos in the world and is still used in large parts of the world
https://www.asbestos.com/mesothelioma/worldwide/
Edit: have to add, that I was completely flabbergasted by that, because I thought asbestos was completely illegal like FCKW (sorry, not English native speaker, seems the abbreviation is CFC - the stuff we put into refrigerators before we figured it produces an ozone hole)
Russia mining companies say though, that their asbestos is safe and it’s just western propaganda to keep them out of business)
Because besides the pesky cancer side effect, it’s an incredible building material.
I think you’ll be surprised at how much asbestos is still used worldwide, including in the US. We’re not using it as wall and ceiling insulation anymore, but it’s still used for things like pipes and vinyl floor tiles.
Because asbestos is fucking awesome. Which made everyone overlook its little
inconvenientsannoyances.People didn’t know better decades ago. Same as in US.
Because some people didn’t expect an Israeli Inquisition