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Asbestosis

diamondgeezer.blogspot.com

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Re: Asbestosis

#161

Post by prawn »

nightshift1 wrote: post #153
simonsquiff wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had my first at 42, second at 45, and about to have my third at 48. Honestly it’s been fine - thinking that people might find this unimaginable is so far from my reality. It really feels like I’ve had the same experience as those in their 30s. Part of this might be that 40s life is a bit more chill anyhow - I no longer go and get smashed every weekend, or even have the FOMO that I’m not doing that. And work life, w…

My parents had me at 40. I wish they had me sooner. They were old and tired for all my life and at 40 my last parent is already near the end. I have only known one of my grandparents. My parents were the equivalent of other kids grandparents. You do you but i think it's selfish.

I think consider that simonsquiff may not have been in a position (stable relationship, reliable personal situation, partner's career, etc) until their 40s. If not now, they may not have had children at all, leaving no one to know any grandparents.

I think there are advantages either way. I have three kids, born when I was 35-41; when my wife was 31-37. The children met great-grandparents, get lots of experience with their grandparents, and I think time for us to get more established has made for a stronger and more interesting parenting environment. I might've regretted giving up chances to travel/etc before having kids. That said, I am conscious that I would be 80+ before my youngest hit 40.

It might be that consecutive generations of late-parenting are where the impact is felt. My parents had their three children at 24-29.

Re: Asbestosis

#162

Post by prawn »

SoftTalker wrote: post #136
ls612 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad’s dad died when he was 13, and this dropped his family from upper middle class to basically in poverty except for owning a fully paid off house. It radically colored his outlook on life and left him risk averse and frugal, even to the expense of his quality of life. What’s the point of saving up an 8 figure nest egg and working into your 70s if you spend less than 100k/year? I’m lucky to have him still at the…

> What’s the point of saving up an 8 figure nest egg and working into your 70s if you spend less than 100k/year? Leaving your kids better off.

That's one point technically, but if it were advice that every generation followed, no one would spend much to actually live their lives!

Re: Asbestosis

#163

Post by ls612 »

Fnoord wrote: post #159
ls612 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad’s dad died when he was 13, and this dropped his family from upper middle class to basically in poverty except for owning a fully paid off house. It radically colored his outlook on life and left him risk averse and frugal, even to the expense of his quality of life. What’s the point of saving up an 8 figure nest egg and working into your 70s if you spend less than 100k/year? I’m lucky to have him still at the…

100k USD per year for a family is poverty in the USA? I had to look that up [1]. > Real wages averaged $67,521 in 2022, and average household incomes averaged to $87,864. Further down it says: > In every country, there are levels of the middle class, with low middle-class earners and high middle-class earners. In America, the states all have their own middle-class medians as well. For example, in Alabama, low-middle-…

Good god reading is hard. He was in poverty or close to it as a teenager after his dad died, not today.

Re: Asbestosis

#164

Post by ikr678 »

exasperaited wrote: post #115
ryukoposting wrote: post #77

I grew up in the Chicago suburbs, but my parents and my whole extended family are from an area in eastern Michigan, about 2 hours north of Detroit. Especially back then, the local economy was heavily dependent on Dow Chemical, who has a massive facility in the area. My grandfather worked there. He was one of the first people to ever handle Saran wrap. He also recalls hilarious stories, like a time when someone pranke…

> I fear that, as this generation leaves us, so will the cautionary tales. Cautionary tales that are not being learned where the similarly dreadful silicosis is concerned; there is an incredible increase in the number of cases of silicosis among kitchen fitters working on granite worktops. (I fear we may also find this issue among people working near 3D printers using glass and carbon-fibre-filled filaments.)

Engineered stone benchtops/products have already been banned in Australia due to this.

Re: Asbestosis

#165

Post by pmlarocque »

fidotron wrote: post #41

Relatedly, Asbestos used to be a place: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Val-des-Sources Attempts to reopen the mine and sell asbestos to the developing world under a new brand caught the attention of the Daily Show leading to some train wreck coverage that ultimately led to them changing the name of the town.

It is fun, that is my hometown. And I know 0 person who died from Asbestosis. My father student job was to stack bags of Asbestos on train and my grand-father worked at the mine his whole life. I guess it's the transformed form that is dangerous not the raw form.

Re: Asbestosis

#166

Post by OptionOfT »

tendencydriven wrote: post #40
pac0 wrote: post #6

> My Dad lost his Dad at the age of 34, which is no age at all in the grand scheme of things. By contrast I still have my Dad at the age of 60, which has meant an extra quarter century of guidance, support, advice, love and always being there. How lucky am I? I lost my father when I was 30. I thought I’d been lucky because I’d had him through my “adult” life. Now I’m 40 and have a 2-year-old son, and over these past…

Oof, this one hits home. I lost my Dad when I was 27, he had just turned 60. Also lung cancer, also smoking since a child, also had never visited the doctor. In the 5 years since then, I've met the love of my life, gotten engaged, and planning a family. All of this without my Dad, without his advice, without his support. It hurts, a lot. Whenever big moments in my life happen, my first instinct is always to give him…

My dad decided to go scorched earth when I had the opportunity to move to the USA. He was always bitter, but he turned poisonous. He made it about himself.

I miss what could've been.

Re: Asbestosis

#167

Post by callc »

jaccola wrote: post #108
gausswho wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you buy a product with asbestos in it if its presence wasn't disclosed? You might, if it provided value vs alternatives. Manufacturers are successuful when they sell. If their product is found dangerous they a) deny and muddy the waters, b) settle lawsuits and if that doesn't work c) close up shop and open a new business. Customer unwelfare is a cost of business.

Asbestos is hard to hide, certainly competitors of the Asbestos-using company would know they were using Asbestos. They, at least, would have an incentive to advertise how bad their competitors product is because it uses Asbestos. Equally, once it has been established that Asbestos is harmful any company using it would be so sued that they would quickly cease to exist. Yes the free market doesn't stop health risks im…

Both regulation and an actually healthy free market are important.

Both have pros and cons

Regulation sucks at directing productions of goods and setting prices, distributing these tasks to the people generally works better.

The free market is unstable though, its actors ever trying to gain advantage and squash competition. Profit first driven people too often push harm to humans as out of mind and externalized.

This is where regulation is needed. (read as: we the people need rules to protect what we deem important, including our health and having a well-functioning society, profits be damned)

Re: Asbestosis

#168

Post by knappe »

My father just retired as a lab analyst looking at builder samples for both modern and historical construction, specifically for asbestos.

The day I moved into the college dorms he looked at me and said "Don't move the floor tiles, ceilings tiles or the touch the large ventilation pipe outside my door in the hallway." A lot of the buildings at my university were built with asbestos, so much so that the university had a 30 year contract with the lab he worked at to analyze samples.

And it isn't only historical buildings that have asbestos. A very well known mall that was built in the 2000s had incurred some severe hail damage and while the repairs were ongoing samples were taken and found to be hot. Someone had introduced asbestos contaminated materials into the original build and rather than extensive repairs the mall had to do extensive remediation first, before continuing repairs.

Apparently there is still a large stock of "hot" building material that are sitting in warehouses and every once in a while they make it into the supply chain.

Re: Asbestosis

#170

Post by rudimentary_phy »

michaelcampbell wrote: post #150
rudimentary_phy wrote: post #103

I was very young, but I remember my grandfather was very afraid to retire from the steel mill where he worked most of his life because those who retired tended to get cancer shortly after and die. Sure enough, a little over a year after his retirement, he got a cold that wouldn't go away, and was diagnosed with cancer and died not too long afterwards. I've wondered for a long time (based entirely on anecdotal observa…

> I've wondered for a long time (based entirely on anecdotal observations) whether some forms of cancer and other illnesses arise more quickly from sudden shifts in daily habit. My suspicion here is that a lot of your grandfather's colleagues "felt the need it was time to slow down and enjoy life" could actually have been the beginning stages of some chronic illness. But that's just a guess.

Yes, that would be my guess as well. It’s just something that has stuck with me regardless.
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