All the
hysteria about asbestos is just wasted time, and the now large industry of
"asbestos-removal" is really wasted money. The ban on it has costed america
hundreds of billions of dollars.
Asbestos is a
naturally occurring substance, and as
alex.tan mentioned
above, it has a variety of other forms. It has six
naturally occurring forms and
three of them have been used commercially. They are more commonly known as
white,
brown, and
blue asbestos.
95% of all asbestos ever used in the United States is white,
chrysolite and most of
it has been imported from Canada. The white form is made up of rolled up sheets,
that make "scroll-like" fibers. This is very different from the blue and brown
varieties which are made of
sharp needle fibers. The blue and brown types have
never been used widely in the
United States excet for in world war II when blue
asbestos was imported from
South Africa for naval shipbuilding. This is just about
the only exception. Brown asbestos has been used very rarely in old factory
buildings. And it is very important to note that the only form of asbestos ever used
in schools or public buildings is white asbestos. Both the blue and brown form can
cause
cancer,
mesothelioma, and
asbestosis. White asbestos does not (which is
95% of that used in the US).
Blue asbestos is deadly and white is quite
harmless and it all has to do with their
physical properties. White asbestos has a very high
surface area and low
density.
White asbestos is ejected very easily if inhaled and if it is captured in the lungs for
a long period of time, it will tend to dissolve. Blue asbestos, however, with it's
needle shape tends to penetrate the lungs and become lodged very easily. They will
not dissolve before damage is done.
The saying "
One fiber can kill" was used widely in the campaign against asbestos.
The theory was that if one million fibers can kill a man then if one fiber is inhaled
then there is
one chance in a million that it will kill. This is utterly
ignorant.
Life-long exposure to white asbestos in
concentrations up to 2 white fibers
per cubic centimeter has caused no ill-effects to asbestos
mining and
processing personnel in
Ontario. At this concentration, one would breathe in
several thousand fibers per breath and over
10 billion fibers per year.
Billions of fibers per year killed no one in Canada. Why would one lone fiber do the
job? Still, the EPA claims a
concentration of 0.001 fibers of
any type of
asbestos per cubic centimeter to be a
serious health risk in schools and public
buildings (all of which conain only white asbestos and usually have a concentration
much lower than that inside buildings.
White asbestos is commonly found in the air and water in North America.
California,
Quebec, and
Ontario all have a very high quantity of asbestos
containing
serpentine rock. It has been known since world war II that the blue and
brown varieties of asbestos are dangerous. We knew that from premature deaths of
shipyard workers and factory workers in New Jersey, but practically all of the
deaths occurred in smokers.
Non-smokers appeared to be much less affected.
The third time a notable effect of blue asbestos was noticed was int he 1950s when
the
Lorillard Tobacco Company introduced Kent cigarettes with new Micronite
filters. The filters were made out of blue asbestos. According to the
New England
Journal of Medicine, 28 of the 33 workers employed to make the filters died
asbestos-related deaths. This is a death rate 325% higher than normal. The
legitimate white asbestos companies had to pay for the small amount of people
who used the fatal blue and brown types of asbestos.
The
Canadian "
Royal Commission on Matters of
Health and Safety Arising from
the Use of Asbestos in Ontario" reported in 1984:
"Even a building whose air hase a white asbestos fiber level up to ten times
greater tha that found in the typical outdoor air would create a risk of fatality less
than one fiftieth of the risk of a fatal automobile accident while driving to and from
the building." It also concluded that
non-occupational exposure to
white asbestos has a risk 10,000 times less than that of
cigarette smoking and
that
"asbestos in building air will almost never pose a health hazard to the
building occupants."
The
EPA established it's own
panel to create a
report that they could use to ban
asbestos. They did. At the time, they really needed some
reputable scientific
expertise to back them up and make them sound
impartial. The organization was
run by
William Reilly at the time, a business man with no real scientific
knowledge. The EPA had 16,000 employees in
1989 but it didn't have one single
scientist.
The public was to pay the several billion dollar burden placed by the infamous ban
on asbestos, all because of an organization employing no legitamate scientists.
Sheesh.
Sources: American Lung Association
http://www.lungusa.org/air/envasbestos.html ; Global Warming in a Politically
Correct Climate, M. Mihkel Mathiesen ; Occupational Safety and Health
Administration http://www.osha-slc.gov/SLTC/asbestos/index.html ;
Environmental Protection Agency
http://www.epa.gov/asbestos/index.htm