The Main Problem With Asbestos
- Posted by:
- Admin
- Tags:
- Asbestos, Dangerous, Hazardous
- Posted date:
- 01-08-2021
What Is The Main Problem Associated With Asbestos?
Do you have questions about the main problem associated with asbestos? We look at the dangers of asbestos and why it is important to take care when handling or removing asbestos.
Why is asbestos dangerous?
Asbestos can be hazardous to people's health and should not be disturbed without the proper precautions and protective equipment. Asbestos exposure can also be hard to notice if proper checks for homes and industries are not properly done.
There are also many types of asbestos that are dangerous in their own right and should be removed properly. Limiting your asbestos exposure is important if you want your health to keep as good as possible and reduce the risk of having lung cancer or asbestos-related diseases.
The risk of lung cancer is related to asbestos exposure, and after inhaling this material, you can suffer severe side effects, including death and more. If you find asbestos, you should ensure your family members avoid this area as much as possible to reduce their exposure time. This will help stop them from getting lung diseases.
Asbestos is still a danger to people without proper protective equipment and kills around 5000 people each year. This is more than the number of people killed in road accidents.
Also, around 20 tradesmen have been known to die each week from past asbestos exposure.
Unfortunately, some buildings contain asbestos if the buildings were built or refurbished before 2000.
Asbestos is spread rather easy.
Once the asbestos has been damaged or disturbed, fibres from this material are released into the air. Once these fibres have been inhaled, they can cause severe damage or diseases if not treated properly with medical attention.
These diseases won't affect you instantly, they can take a long time to develop and spread to a more severe case, but once they have been diagnosed, it is usually too late for anything to be done.
Why is your protection from Asbestos important?
This is why your protection from asbestos is important, and contact with this material should be limited until an asbestos removal team has removed it.
If asbestos is found within your home or industry, the best approach is to contact an agency for toxic substances and get advice and assistance in this situation.
Serious diseases caused by asbestos:
Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that affects the lining of the lungs (specifically the pleura) and the lining surrounding your digestive tract (the peritoneum).
This type of cancer is almost entirely exclusive to some asbestos exposure. In most cases, once it has been noticed and diagnosed, this condition is almost always fatal.
Asbestos-related lung cancer is the same as (or looks the same as) lung cancer caused by smoking but has some other causes.
In this situation, it has been estimated that there is one lung cancer for every mesothelioma death. The more asbestos you are exposed to, the faster the latency period will be, and the more advanced cancer will be.
Asbestosis is known as a severe scarring condition of the lungs, and this disease generally occurs after having heavy exposure to asbestos materials which has spanned over many years.
One symptom which shows you have asbestos exposure includes shortness of breath, wheezing and tiredness. Although this can be because of many things, it is best to edge on the side of caution if you have any thought of being exposed to asbestos.
This condition can usually cause progressive shortness of breath, but this condition can be fatal in severe cases without treatment. After years of exposure, these symptoms can get worse and harder to treat.
Pleural thickening is a condition that occurs after heavy exposure to asbestos materials. With this condition, the lining of your lungs (also known as pleura) thickens and begins to swell.
If this condition worsens, the lungs themselves will be squeezed together, and this can cause shortness of breath and some discomfort in the chest.
You should keep in mind that those who smoke and have asbestos exposure have an increased risk of lung cancer development sometime in the future.
How long would it take for asbestos to affect YOU?
Many asbestos-related diseases can affect you, and these diseases can take many years before you begin to show signs. The time between the initial exposure and when the signs begin to show is called the latency period.
When you work with, damage or disturb asbestos in any way, this material will form many thin but sharp fibres, which can be harmful to the human body if inhaled. This is mainly because the human body is unable to break down this material.
Asbestos is a well known and naturally occurring material. This material was widely used and had various uses in products and materials used in construction and other industries. Luckily, the UK banned this material in 1999 due to its effects on people's health who come in contact with the material. Asbestos products were hazardous to peoples health and were backed up by the many killed later on from a long time exposure.
When you work with, damage or disturb asbestos in any way, this material will form many thin but sharp fibres, which can be harmful to the human body if inhaled.
This is mainly because the human body is unable to break down this material.
These microscopic fibres that come from asbestos materials can be rather dangerous once inhaled. They can become lodged in your lungs and create a build-up of scar tissue.
This scar tissue is generated because your bodies immune system is trying to fight the material/break it down or remove it.
Because this condition can occur over many years, there can be a large amount of scar tissue remaining in your lungs due to the amount of time passed after the initial asbestos exposure.
With the amount of scar tissue being formed over time, the tissue within the lungs stiffens. This will make it more difficult for the lungs to fill up with air and provide the necessary oxygen to support and maintain your body properly.
The development of these diseases, which can cause all sorts of symptoms, including lung restriction, has a long latency period that can last anywhere between 10 to 30 years.
These symptoms can change depending on the development of the disease, type of disease and other factors.
In many circumstances, the symptoms for many of these diseases will show themselves after 20 to 30 years from the initial exposure date.
These symptoms generally show after the diseases have developed to a high degree and can be difficult to treat in some cases.
Some people have had heavier exposure to this hazardous material, such as insulation workers, boilermakers, laggers, and shipbuilders. As you might have guessed, the latency period can be significantly shortened for these people depending on how long they were exposed and the amount they were exposed to. In many cases, the latency period for the disease development can be significantly shorter than expected.
There are some instances where the time difference between your exposure and diagnosis is much shorter, which can drastically impact your health and increase your chances of surviving this experience exponentially.
One instance where these diseases were caught extremely quickly was during the twin towers' collapse in 2001. During the collapse of the twin towers in 2001, there were clouds of dust and debris that contained large amounts of asbestos fibres, which was released into the air for many to breathe in.
The majority of those exposed to the hazardous material in this instance were mainly limited to rescue workers at ground zero of this event.
Related to this event, five years later, one of the emergency responders for the 9/11 incident was found to have mesothelioma disease and died due to it. Shortly before this, in 2004, another worker was found to have mesothelioma disease and passed away from this illness.
Breathing in this dangerous material is extremely dangerous and deadly when left untreated.
Some experts suggest that many 9/11 responders in New York have been diagnosed at some point after this crisis with some of these asbestos-related diseases in the coming years.
You could have lung function tests to see if you have signs of being affected, but these symptoms can change depending on the person infected.
Many emergency responders were infected with asbestos because they were not prepared for this material's airborne dust and debris. Because of this, they did not have adequate time to get appropriate respiratory protection to fight against this asbestos.
Asbestos exposure is dangerous, and the longer you are exposed and the higher the amount you are exposed to, the worse your symptoms will be and the faster the diseases will develop.
Are you looking for asbestos training in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire? For any extra information regarding asbestos training, you can follow the links below to find out more:
