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Asbestosis

diamondgeezer.blogspot.com

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Re: Asbestosis

#191

Post by jabl »

landl0rd wrote: post #182
jrmg wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

My understanding is that fiberglass and mineral wool [1] are classified as skin (yes, it itches), eye, and lung irritants (coughing), but they're not carcinogenic. Considering how extremely widely they have been used for a long time, if they were we'd most likely have seen it by now.

Sure it's not good for you, so using PPE is certainly warranted, but it's on a whole different level of badness compared to asbestos.

[1] Per wikipedia, there are some varieties of mineral wool used for high temperatures (think insulating industrial furnaces and such) which are carcinogens.

Re: Asbestosis

#192

Post by jabl »

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.

Wrt to retirement, it's probably more due to cancer rates in general shooting up in people of retirement age. The body gets less adept at dealing with crap that eventually develops into cancer.

Re: Asbestosis

#193

Post by aucisson_masque »

> They worked without masks or other protection, the dangers of asbestos either unknown or not thought worth bothering about.

No, they did know. Already in the 19th century it was discovered an high rate of mortality amongst asbestos workers.

In France, 1893, we had the first laws about factory dusts levels.

1906, everyone knew.

Here is a rough translation of a France sénat Report :

> It was in 1906 that the first cases of fibrosis were discovered among spinning mill workers.

> The 1906 Labor Inspection Bulletin published a document entitled "Note on the Hygiene and Safety of Workers in Asbestos Spinning and Weaving Mills," by Mr. Auribault, departmental labor inspector in Caen 11 ( * ).

> Denis Auribault noted: "In 1890, an asbestos spinning and weaving factory was established near Condé-sur-Noireau (Calvados). During the first five years of operation, there was no artificial ventilation to directly evacuate the siliceous dust produced by the various looms; this total failure to comply with hygiene rules 12 ( * ) resulted in numerous deaths among the staff: around fifty workers died during the aforementioned period."

> Thus, as early as 1906, the link between exposure to asbestos fibres and the occurrence of occupational deaths was clearly established.

https://www.senat.fr/rap/r05-037-1/r05-037-1_mono.html#toc28

Re: Asbestosis

#194

Post by teddyX »

Hey, good thread and some really important points here. Lung fibrosis is tough stuff—there’s no magic bullet yet, honestly. What most docs use these days are drugs like nintedanib and pirfenidone—they help slow things down, but yeah, still no cure. Just recently, a new one, nerandomilast got the FDA thumbs-up and people are saying it looks promising for slowing the disease and maybe it’s easier for folks to tolerate. So, couple new options on the table, which is encouraging (finally!).

A lot of people ask about stem cell therapy. It’s a hot topic for sure. The hype is kinda huge, but, well, it’s still experimental for lung fibrosis. There’s early research suggesting stem cells might help repair or regenerate some lung tissue, but big lung organizations say be careful—most of what’s out there for sale isn’t proven and can actually be risky if you’re not in a real clinical trial. Like, it’s cool science, but def not ready for prime time (yet).

New stuff is happening too—like targeted immunotherapies and more advanced cellular therapies. There’s a lot of studies in the works, some in mice, some actually moving into people. So, fingers crossed for more breakthroughs soon.

https://www.fda.gov/drugs/news-events-human-drugs/fda-approv... https://stemcellthailand.org/therapies/idiopathic-pulmonary-... https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59093-7

Re: Asbestosis

#195

Post by p0pularopinion »

When I was 18, I demolished an asbestos cement wall - too bad the asbestos aspect was unclear until the work was already finished.

I was only wearing a simple mask and was otherwise unprotected.

Since this event, I have developed an excruciating health anxiety/health OCD disorder that focuses around this event. Realistically I do know that while my risk is non zero, it is exceedingly low. But this non zero chance is what is so evil about OCD and this topic. It is debilitating.

At this point, I know way more about asbestos and related diseases than anyone outside the medical and construction industry should know.

Re: Asbestosis

#196

Post by monooso »

im3w1l wrote: post #119
monooso wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pray tell, precisely how should we have resisted?

It's ironic that even when the subject is resistance you are looking for a master to tell you what to do. If you want to be free there must be a choice and for there to be a choice there must alternatives. How *could* we have resisted? What were our options? This is not just a theorethical complaint. I think there were in practice many different things you (in the plural sense) could have done that could have worked…

Don't tell me what I'm doing, it's very annoying and arrogant. I'm not looking for a master to tell me what to do, I'm asking OP to justify their slight.

As for the many, many things which could have worked in your opinion, people have been resisting the introduction of such laws for years. A common, and correct, refrain on HN is that the people resisting have to win every battle; the people trying to introduce such legislation only need to win one.

Re: Asbestosis

#197

Post by lkuty »

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-…

I think the median is better than the average because high salaries (outliers) will skew the average upwards. So now I am wondering what is the median salary and how it compares to the average.

Re: Asbestosis

#198

Post by philjohn »

beejiu wrote: post #16
bschwindHN wrote: post #9

I recently came across this unfortunate promotion for asbestos from back in the day: https://imgur.com/V1QcX7I

It's unfortunate this article is about the UK and Imgur has blocked the UK because of the Online Safety Act :(

It's not blocked in the UK, nor is it because of the OSA.

They decided to withdraw from the UK market as the ICO (not OFCOM, who handle OSA) fined them for mishandling the PII of children, not under the OSA, but under UK’s Children’s Code[1] which is part of the DPA (UK implementation of GDPR into law)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children's_Code

Re: Asbestosis

#199

Post by Nursie »

morkalork wrote: post #74
gruez wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>the name literally comes from the Russian town of Asbest which is known for exporting, you guessed it, asbestos Seems incorrect. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/asbestos Etymology From Old French abestos, from Latin asbestos, itself from Ancient Greek ἄσβεστος (ásbestos, “unquenchable, inextinguishable”), from ᾰ̓- (ă-, “not”) + σβέννῡμῐ (sbénnūmĭ, “I quench, quell”).

More likely the town is named after the material, there's an Asbestos in Canada as well. I always get a kick out of cities named like that: Cobalt Ontario, Uranium City, for example.

Chloride, New Mexico.

Named for the silver salt found there.

Re: Asbestosis

#200

Post by wmil »

jabl wrote: post #189
knappe wrote: 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?

The danger is mechanical, not chemical. Think small sharp needles that you can breathe in.

Chemically it's just silicates. So you can melt it at high temperatures or do various other processes to get rid of it.

I'm not sure what they actually do.

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