is asbestos really that bad? or is it the long term affects. if charlemagne just used it a show off thing in the diner would it have really mattered?
According to the official CDC report which was used by the EPA to ban new uses of asbestos [1] the gist is that asbestos isn't a traditional poison. We measure most "poisons" in terms of Lethal Dose (LD50) or roughly paraphrased "how much of this would it take to kill 50% of subjects." We tend to think of something, like cyanide, as "very poisonous" if a small amount of something will kill you very quickly. But we measure lethality in other ways - "lethal concentration" (LC0 - whats the lowest concentration in air that has been observed to caused a fatality, LC50 at what concentration is 50% affected), lowest observed adverse affects level (will this mess you up like lead poisoning?), lethal time (LT0 - lowest amount of time observed to cause fatality, LT50 - time to cause fatality in 50% of population), and a host of others.
Asbestos doesn't have an observed LD50 (at least not in that report). No one has died within a few hours of inhaling asbestos like they would if, say, they ate Fugu pufferfish.
What it does have, is a very low LC0 and very long LT0 numbers. Only a little bit needs to get into your lungs, which unlike the pathway we observe in cigarettes, will stick around for a very long time, where it will eventually (on a long enough timeline) cause cancer. Exposure makes these numbers go up. 10% of asbestos mill workers die of mesothelioma, 2% of people who work with asbestos insulating boats and planes die of mesothelioma or related cancers - most within 5-20 years. If you're a smoker, the synergistic effects can further increase your risk of cancer by 90x(!). Other figures in other reports are a bit lower, but the panic was over the issue that there was no 'safe' dose of asbestos unlike with other toxins and no trivial environmental remediation.
I only gave it a scan; happy to be corrected by someone more informed on the subject.
[1] https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp61.pdf - since updated in 2001
By the way, whatever happened with Lockitron? I backed it in 2012 and the device I received never really worked. Reached out and was told there was a fix coming but nothing ever happened. I've never backed any sort of crowdfunding since.
With a few exceptions, crowdfunding is much more tame these days. You should look into again. There are some particularly great products on https://www.crowdsupply.com/ for instance. Aside from a few COVID delays from March-June, I back and receive projects nearly every month.
If it breaks however, the fibers go everywhere, especially to your lungs where they stay. People working with it died of all kinds of problems, but mostly cancer in the lungs iirc.
There are companies that specialize in asbestos removal and safe work on it, it is one of the things I check for very carefully when looking at real estate.
Finally, you find it in the most unexpected places. Floor coverings, roof coverings, liners, chimneys, stoves, ovens, as spray-on covering of steel beams and girders (and floor joists), the list if endless.
If you don't know what you're looking at in an older building and it's gray stop until you are 100% sure that it isn't asbestos.
https://ehs.oregonstate.edu/asb-when > When is Asbestos Dangerous?
Yes and no.
There's a lot of other nastier industrial products. Asbestos is in the public consciousness as particularly bad because it was used widely before we know it reliably caused cancer.
That said, it also reliably gives people cancer so it's bad reputation is not exactly undeserved.
But yes, the long-term effects are the real problem.
That said, the probability is low for any given fiber. There is asbestos in aftermarket break pads, meaning if you live in a major city, you probably breath in small amounts regularly.
This is oft repeated, but is there evidence that it is true? Are the statistical odds of getting cancer from asbestos really modeled on the risk that you will encounter a single particularly insidious individual fiber?
With cigarettes for example it's different, since the self-cleaning process will clean and remove the remains of the cigarettes from the lungs fairly quickly unless the smoking is repeated over a long period of time and the system gets over-saturated and gradually breaks down.