People with heavy, prolonged exposure to asbestos have up to 13% chance is getting cancer.
People with prolonged exposure to sawdust have a 16% chance of getting cancer.
Asbestos is dangerous but not nearly as dangerous as most people think.
People with prolonged exposure to sawdust have a 16% chance of getting cancer.
Asbestos is dangerous but not nearly as dangerous as most people think.
It's well-known that both asbestos and wood dust (especially hardwood dust) are carcinogens, but (for example) mesothelioma is very bad and does not require heavy, prolonged exposure — brief and/or low-level exposure has been shown to cause it too. Additionally, inhaled asbestos fibers can remain in the lungs and pleural lining for decades. In contrast, the human body can expel wood dust over time.
Link?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4243788/
Workers with heavy exposure to asbestos have a similar risk of lung cancer as persons with low or no exposure 20 years after the exposure has ended.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/07/24/1189745...
13% risk is a number controlling out other factors. Cancer is a numbers game and as a person living your life you stack the risks together.
Trying to rhetorically minimize the danger of this stuff by comparing it to sawdust is specious and gross. Exposure to sawdust is a narrow occupational hazard easily mitigated with PPE. Exposure to asbestos is a much broader - use of baby powder, serving on a ship, working in a boiler room, working as a mechanic, etc. Its a very broad risk that most workers didn’t even realize they were exposed to - just their presence was a risk.
So is the other figure, so the comparison is valid. Maybe wood dust is more dangerous that you assume?
BTW, the asbestos in baby powder had nothing to do with industrial use of asbestos. It was in the talc because asbestos and talc are frequently coincident in the ground.