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Comment by nradov | Hacker News Reader

Was your father's home and workplace ever tested for radon? It's the second leading cause of lung cancer and a far bigger problem than asbestos.

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/s...

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Don't forget: brake pads.

The various facets of all transportation industries probably have as much or more asbestos grinding into the air with particulate matter from vehicular brake systems on trains and automobiles, and to a lesser extent aviation.

The soot in the NYC subway is probably ripe with asbestos. Every time I smell that acrid ceramic smell of new brakes on a subway car, I figure I'm catching a whiff of asbestos, and it's a smell I encounter more than talc.

I only know the smell for what it is from changing brake pads on my car a few times, years ago.

Asbestos brake pads are illegal in the US as far as I know (and I’ve heard that the asbestos in the old banned ones was not the same as the really nasty stuff in insulation, even after being ground up during normal use).

Did NYC somehow get a special “kill all the commuters” exemption under the radar, or something?

This article from 1980 says asbestos brake usage in train/subway cars was already almost entirely phased out at the time it was published: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1980/11/11/late...

Asbestos brake pads are NOT illegal in the US, according to the EPA[0]. I have not been able to find any evidence that asbestos brake particulate is safe[1].

There are numerous places online saying that most brake pads no longer use asbestos, particularly OEM brake pads. Though I can't find any numbers to back this up. Also, I have no idea how carcinogenic the replacement materials are; I hope they are less dangerous than asbestos.

[0] https://www.epa.gov/asbestos/us-federal-bans-asbestos [1] https://www.mesotheliomatreatmentcenters.org/asbestos/brake-...

I couldn’t find much detail about the sources of home/office radon in the linked site. Is it suspected to naturally occurring ie coming out of the ground or from some product or chemical used?

It rises up out of the ground, and the (expensive) solution is to install a vacuum system beneath the slab that vents the the outside. I know because my parents' house has such a system. More info: https://sosradon.org/reducing-radon-in-your-home

You can tell it's working because there's a U-shaped pressure gauge attached to the system showing the differential between under the slab and outside: https://www.clutchprep.com/physics/gauge-u-shaped-tube

It comes out of the ground naturally in many places and accumulates to dangerous levels in buildings with poor ventilation. There is very little industrial use of radon.

Even some granite countertops can emit radon.

It's naturally occurring in the soil.

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