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Asbestosis

diamondgeezer.blogspot.com

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Re: Asbestosis

#201

Post by port3000 »

p0pularopinion wrote: post #195

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…

I'm also inclined to overthink this stuff, but please try not to worry so much. You were outdoors, wearing a mask, for one day. This is very different from occupational exposure with no protection over decades.

There are a thousand things that can increase your risk of cancer by 0.001%. Heart disease kills >20X more people than asbestos related illnesses in the US. Focus on being healthy and happy.

Re: Asbestosis

#202

Post by omnibrain »

p0pularopinion wrote: post #195

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…

I played with pelleted cattle feed as a child in the early 90ies. I still remeber the smell. Not sure if this contained meat and bone meal but it's in the back of my head ever since.

Re: Asbestosis

#203

Post by jve »

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?

Few months ago I called local company that specializes in utilizing asbestos. He explained me on the phone that there are concrete bunkers/boxes in the ground and they just store it there. At least that's how I understood what he was telling me. Eastern Europe.

Re: Asbestosis

#204

Post by jve »

wincy wrote: post #56

One thing I think most Western people don't realize, especially with how terrified we are of asbestos, is that it is still used and being mined today! Russia still extensively uses Abestos, the name literally comes from the Russian town of Asbest which is known for exporting, you guessed it, asbestos, to countries like China, India, and Brazil. Of course being Russian they also say it's a Western lie that Asbestos ca…

> I wouldn't want to live in a building with it

Well, as I gather from information all over, the only danger is if you start to mess with it, like cutting, breaking and such. As then you put the nasty dust airborne.

Re: Asbestosis

#205

Post by exasperaited »

olologin wrote: post #158
exasperaited wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My sympathies for what must be just an awful time for you —- sporadic pancreatic cancer is just a lurking evil. My mother died of an unusual form of it, just a little older than yours, when I was in my early twenties. It was terrible. The only unusual thing was some prior surgery near her pancreas, from twenty years earlier, had apparently had severe scarring that was noticed during surgery to fit a stent.

I am sorry for your loss as well, it was even harder for you in twenties.

The thing is that as awful as it was, maybe I personally got through it initially without doing all the grieving, because I thought so much of my grieving had happened after she was diagnosed with such an awful, bleak thing.

In reality I was still dealing with it ten, fifteen years later. Because pre-death grief and post-death grief are different things.

This only really came home to me three and a half years ago when my (elderly) father died after years of moderate dementia; this hit me so hard and continues to weigh on me, and I realised I'd tried to avoid grief when my mother died. I miss my father in a way I never allowed myself to miss my mother, and he had the good long life.

Grief is there whether you want to acknowledge it or not.

Re: Asbestosis

#206

Post by njarboe »

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.

If your parents did not have you at 40 you would not exist. Hope you are enjoying life.

Re: Asbestosis

#207

Post by kryogen1c »

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…

> men in their 40s who worked in the dioxin plant looked like they were in their 80s. Many hard-working people died young there

There are still pockets of this. In the big US Navy shipyards, the exotic metals welders are not known for living very long.

Re: Asbestosis

#208

Post by paulryanrogers »

somenameforme wrote: post #179
nightshift1 wrote: post #153

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.

Like I'm sure you can see yourself already, a lot depends on the individuals in question. I'm approaching my mid 40s and am still a gym rat - and at my peak lifetime strength + endurance levels. On the other hand I also have peers that have already muddled their minds and broken their bodies, often through years of indulgence, sometimes well before their 40s. This [1] is RFK Jr at friggin 71 years old, amongst other…

Having heard stories of his fatherhood journey, I would not hold up RFKJ as a model of anything except selfishness.

Re: Asbestosis

#209

Post by animal531 »

SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #36

> The company mined asbestos-bearing rock at several sites in South Africa "In South Africa" is not very specific. it seems to have been firstly in this remote in the remote Northern Cape where "The mine eventually became the largest crocidolite mine in the world" : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koegas_mine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbestos_Mountains It predictably wasn't consequence-free at that end either, see…

It seems it was mostly to the north all over the Northern Cape, followed by Limpopo and Mpumalanga.

Apparently South Africa was the world's second-largest market-economy producer of asbestos from the 1950s to the 1980s and the largest producer of amosite and crocidolite (I had to google those and it appears among asbestos there are a few different types/lengths of fibers).

The big mines all closed around 1992/98, with a complete cessation of all asbestos mining in 2002/3. I found this scanned document from the University of Cape Town that goes into detail on the discovery, mining and a few epidemics as they called them: https://vula.uct.ac.za/access/content/group/9c29ba04-b1ee-49...

The numbers are crazy, for example in 1931 mill workers (in a sample of 100) only 14% had more than 5 years of service (the single longest having been there for 9 years). "Yet every worker experienced a cough productive of mucoid sputum, 72% suffered dyspnea on exertion and 47% reported loss of weight".

In less than 1 year 36% showed early signs, 9% advanced signs, 45% any abnormal sign. In 3 years that went up to 55%, 24% and 79% respectively; and by 5-9 years 36%, 64% and 100%.

Re: Asbestosis

#210

Post by 8fingerlouie »

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…

There has been proven a link between smoking cessation and an increased risk of autoimmune diseases [1].

Maybe something related is going on when you quit working with something like asbestos, and once you "settle down", your body is no longer under constant attack, so cancers happen ?

[1]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17153844/

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