On Tuesday, April 6, 2021 at 1:36:17 PM UTC+1, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 06/04/2021 12:34, GB wrote:
On 06/04/2021 12:07, charles wrote:
In article ,
GB wrote:
On 06/04/2021 10:40, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 06/04/2021 10:23, Tricky Dicky wrote:
I disposed of an old asbestos garage roof myself, full PPE face,
masks, goggles and gloves. It is reasonably safe to handle

especially if wetted. It is the dust in the lungs that is the danger
Also whitre asbestos is not nearly the problem that blue asbestos is..

Bear in mind that Mesothelioma takes around 25 years to develop. That's
probably longer than the life expectancy of most people on this
newsgroup. This is a job best done by older folk.

In the late 1960s, I used asbestos cement sheeting as the internal
covering
on my porch. I cut it to size - nobody knew about masks then. I'm - so
far, still here.


I think the risk is probably exaggerated, although obviously best
avoided now we know about it.

It only takes one fibre, lodged in your lungs (usually the lungs but can
be elsewhere), to give you cancer.
asbestos does not *necessarily|* give you cancer

"Asbestosis is long-term inflammation and scarring of the lungs due to
asbestos fibers. Symptoms may include shortness of breath, cough,
wheezing, and chest tightness. *Complications* may include lung cancer,
mesothelioma, and pulmonary heart disease."


Exactly the same as smoking
But the people most at risk were
those who worked with asbestos on a daily basis. For some sorts of
insulation, it came in powdered form, was mixed with water in a bucket,
and slapped in place. You can imagine the clouds of dust produced by
that mixing process.

By no means everybody working in this way became ill, so the risks for
an individual only working very occasionally with asbestos were probably
not all that bad.

The people who died were mainly in the mining, manufacture or heavy use
of, asbestos [parts].

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbestos

is a balanced overview.

Asbestos wasn't in the end banned because it was *especially* dangerous,
but because it could be entirely replaced with other materials. It is
way less dangerous than smoking, for example.



--
"It is an established fact to 97% confidence limits that left wing
conspirators see right wing conspiracies everywhere"

When very young I fell through a flat asbestos roof (Over a toilet in a changing room) Tore huge gash in back of my thigh. While face down on the operating table having it stitched up I kept complaining about a pain in the bridge of my foot. The surgeon had a look and said thats only a small cut but put a stitch in it to keep me quiet. He actually stitched a small piece of asbestos into it. It sat as a small projection on my foot for a few years and then began to weep. It had turned to gangrene.

Local electric company demolished cooling towers in some of their peat burning power stations. Some years later someone asked how they disposed of the asbestos.
" Dumped it in the bog."
" Whereabouts in the bog?"
" Can't remember."
End of story