So asbestos is super dangerous to your lungs. It’s tiny, and sharp, so your lungs can’t remove it using mucus etc as it would with other dusts/particles.
*That makes sense.*
But what about fibreglass insulation – it’s tiny little super sharp glass fibres that (in my head) aren’t much different to fibreglass.
What about fine sand, or even diatomaceous earth which is famous for its ability to kill bugs/insects BECAUSE it’s super sharp on a micro level?
^For ^the ^flair, ^not ^sure ^if ^this ^is ^a ^biology, ^physics ^or ^chemstry ^question. ^I’m ^hoping ^’bio’ ^is ^OK.
^I ^just ^finished ^insulating ^the ^loft ^with ^my ^father-in-law. ^I ^wore ^a ^respirator, ^he ^didn’t ^(too ^’proud’?) ^- ^I’m ^fine, ^just ^itchy ^skin, ^but ^he’s ^had ^a ^bad ^cough ^for ^a ^few ^days.
In: 4960
JESUS CHRIST. These are the most confidently incorrect answers I’ve seen in a while.
Of the five main types of Asbestos fiber, the most commonly used type is Crysotile.
The main hazardous characteristic of it is that when it becomes *fryable* the fibers tend to break into shards that have a weird physical structure that results in the ends of the fragments to have curled, hook-like ends that resemble microscopic velcro.
The hooked ends are very good at sticking into tissue, and unlike fiberglass, silica, and other commonly inhaled harmful substances, the body cannot dislodge the particles as effectively. This results in the particles remaining in the body for MUCH longer, and that causes a body to resort to other means of self-preservation, such as encapsulation.
When the body encapsulates an asbestos fiber, it deposits calcium around it and forms a layer of scar tissue around the deposit.
One or two fibers isn’t much of a problem, but people who have repeatedly been exposed to airborne particulates over linger periods of time, can have their lung tissues saturated with these asbestos-calcium deposits. Scar tissue cannot support oxygen/CO2 exchange, so having your lungs filled with scar tissue can cause a person to lose a significant percentage of usable lung tissue. (I used to work with an old-timer industrial insulator who only had 30% of one lung left.)
This is called Asbestosis. It is a chronic condition and there is no treatment.
The other serious concern with Asbestos is that having asbestos in your lungs has been linked with an incredibly high increase in occurrence of lung cancer (80 times. 400x if you’re a smoker) and worse than that is the linked likelihood of developing Mesothelioma, which is, IMHO, the scariest kind of cancer possible. It’s cancer of the lining of internal organs, which means that it’s almost guaranteed to metastasize before you even know you have it. It’s a death sentence with a short timer, and it’ll waste a human into a husk faster than pancreatic cancer.
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