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Asbestosis

diamondgeezer.blogspot.com

181–190 of 232 posts

Re: Asbestosis

#181
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Fully agreed on this, the generational stuff is where having children late is just brutal. When I was young, I actually often hung out my grand grandmother's place, drinking real buttermilk and eating the tasty goodies it can produce. I took it all for granted, but it was a wonderful upbringing and undoubtedly took a major load of my parent. I'm not actually entirely sure why she decided to move to the city at which point that entire network disappeared and things became much more difficult for both of us. And I don't think I really want to ask why either.

On the other hand here I am today living half way around the world from where I was born, so maybe this urge to expand outward is some sort of genetic thing. Could explain a lot about humanity - Africa was pretty much a utopia especially relative to the damnable freezing wastelands the 'Northern Lands.' Gotta be something a bit wrong with some of us! Hey who's up for going to Mars? I am!

Re: Asbestosis

#182
post #148
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A gentle note to anyone reading, fiberglass insulation requires wearing air filters, for the same reasons noted else in this thread. Wear them expecially to cut it, but also just putting it up or working in a crawlspace with it.

That’s not what the manufacturers of modern glass fiber insulation would have you believe. Plenty of people cutting and handling it with no PPE at all in their promotional literature. https://www.owenscorning.com/en-us/insulation/pink-next-gen-...

Fiberglass is at least pretty easy one to figure out. Don't have to get that stuff in your skin more than once to realize it's probably really, really bad to breathe.

Re: Asbestosis

#183

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…

We spent some time this summer in the Saginaw and Midland area. The "mark" that the Dow family made is very visible, insofar as charities, buildings, etc. I would imagine that's the tip of a very scary industrial contamination iceberg.

Re: Asbestosis

#184
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really buy the comparison. If you're really unlucky, you can get cancer from a "safe dose" of radiation. Low exposures of both things are statistically less likely to hurt you than large doses. We pick a line to call "safe", but completely safety in either case is not guaranteed.

There is a natural level of radioactivity which the body is used to compensate. Small additional doses of radioactivity can therefor be neglected. This is not true for stuff like abestos.

There is even the "hormesis hypothesis" which posits that low levels above background might be beneficial for human health.

Re: Asbestosis

#185
post #168

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…

> 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.

I wonder how much of this is because folks in the supply chain might not be aware of what asbestos looks like.

Re: Asbestosis

#186
post #180
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Back when your father was a teenager, 100k USD was a small fortune.

He spends 100k today not in 1970.

Re: Asbestosis

#187
post #168

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…

I'm currently working as a PCM analyst looking at samples to identify asbestos. There is a lot out there still, we are busy every week. (technically PCM doesn't identify asbestos, just the number of fibers during abatement, PLM will identify asbestos but that takes a lot longer to process).

Re: Asbestosis

#188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is false actually. asbestos is banned in Russia in residential flat construction (unless it is fully isolated so that it doesn't get inside the space) exactly because it is bad for your lungs. There's limits on how much asbestos can be in the air safely and thry are pretty low

Eternit (асбестоцементный шифер) is absolutely everywhere in Russia, even if banned in residential construction, so the exposure chance is still pretty high.

It is a fact that that type of asbestos is less bad (though still bad). But yes it's true it is common in roofs in russia and probably shouldn't be.

But if roofing material is exposed in your room you're doing something wrong. Also legal limit for asbest dust in air also apply to asbest used in "шифер" (according to wikipedia)

Re: Asbestosis

#189
post #168

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…

> 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.

Not working in the industry, what do they actually do with asbestos that has been removed? I presume it can't be 'destroyed', so it needs to be stored indefinitely somewhere where it doesn't cause harm? Dump it in an unused mine shaft and seal the entrance?

Re: Asbestosis

#190
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not using asbestos is not the reason why homes in the Western world are expensive. https://aiobs.org/how-healthy-and-costly-are-the-most-used-i... shows insulation cost for a (typical?) 1500sqft (~140m^2 for the rest of the world) home. The most common, and also the cheapest, type of insulation being fiberglass bats at $560. So if this home would cost $200k, that's 3% of the total price. So even if asbestos would be…

$560 out of $200k is 0.3%. $4500 out of $200k is 2.3%. Either way, yeah it's a small fraction.

Of course, you're right. I will now go and demand a refund for my STEM education.
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