The Asbestos Story—From Lifesaver to Death Threat
NOT long ago all the residents of a trailer park in Arizona, U.S.A., had to sell their homes and possessions to the government and move out. Everything in the park, from trailers to furniture to children’s toys, was systematically destroyed—crushed flat and buried under layers of filter paper, gravel, and topsoil. Why? Radiation? Toxic chemicals? Bad water? No; the trailer park was sitting on the residues of an old milling operation. It was contaminated with asbestos.
This has been a tumultuous century for asbestos—a dizzying descent from the pinnacle of popularity to the depths of vilification. Once the darling of industry and the revered savior of countless lives from fires, asbestos now stands accused of complicity in the deaths of literally hundreds of thousands of people. To asbestos goes the dubious distinction of having revolutionized the construction industry—not once, but twice: first, in the global trend to put it in buildings; second, in the sometimes mad rush to get the stuff out again.
Schools, offices, and apartment buildings have shut down, at a monumental cost to taxpayers, landlords, and residents. A tidal wave of lawsuits has swamped the legal system. And fear has altered lives—all because of asbestos.
But what is asbestos? Where does it come from? Is it really all that dangerous?
A Checkered Past
Contrary to what some may think, asbestos is not just another misfire of modern technology, another laboratory brainchild gone berserk. No, asbestos is a mineral mined from the earth. Or, more accurately, asbestos is a class of minerals—there are six different types, each quite different. But all are fibrous in structure, and all are extremely resistant to heat.
People have been using asbestos for thousands of years. Many centuries before Christ, Finnish peasants mixed it in pottery and chinked cracks in their log huts with it. The ancient Greeks used it to make wicks for lamps. The ancient Romans wove asbestos fibers into fabrics to make towels, nets, and even head coverings for women. These fabrics were easy to clean: simply throw them into a blazing fire and draw them out bright and white!
In medieval times Emperor Charlemagne reportedly convinced some barbarian guests that he had supernatural powers when he threw an asbestos tablecloth into the fire and pulled it out unsinged. Some enterprising medieval merchants even sold asbestos crosses, citing their resistance to fire as evidence that they were made from the wood of “the true cross”!
Until the late 19th century, though, asbestos was little more than a curiosity. That changed because of the industrial age. In the 1800’s, industry realized that asbestos is more than fireproof; it also resists corrosion and makes a good insulator. Asbestos soon found its way into roofing felt, ceiling tiles, floor tiles, insulation, concrete mixes, cement pipes, asphalt, theater curtains, brake linings, and even filters. Eventually, some 3,000 uses were found for it.
Before long, asbestos supported a flourishing global industry. Large deposits were discovered in the Ural Mountains of the Soviet Union, in the Alps of northern Italy, in Vermont in the United States, and in South Africa. By the mid-1970’s, world production of asbestos neared six million tons per year.
The Terrible Price
This meteoric rise in popularity, however, was not without its rumblings of foreboding. In fact, as far back as some 19 centuries ago, the Roman historian Pliny had noted that slaves who worked in asbestos mines seemed to have respiratory problems. His was only the first of many warning voices.
In the early 1900’s, doctors in Europe began to notice that asbestos workers were dying of respiratory ailments. By 1918 some insurance companies were already refusing to cover asbestos workers, noting their unusually short life spans. By the 1930’s, autopsies had established that massive exposure to asbestos could indeed be fatal. The tiny, needle-shaped crystals of many types of asbestos can work their way far down into the lungs, or even into the abdominal cavity, and remain there, sometimes bringing on disease decades later. Following are some of the more common asbestos-related diseases:
Asbestosis. The most common affliction, particularly among those who have had a long-term exposure to asbestos. A scarring of lung tissue that gradually causes the lung to rigidify and that obstructs the air spaces within the lung. Asbestosis causes labored breathing and makes lungs more vulnerable to infections such as pneumonia and bronchitis, which in turn are much more dangerous to people with the condition. Asbestosis is incurable, and it can kill.
Lung Cancer. Also very common, it kills more people than does asbestosis. Interestingly, though, when exposure to asbestos is combined with the smoking habit, the incidence of lung cancer really soars—far higher than if the risks of smoking and of asbestos exposure were simply added together.
Mesothelioma. A rare but extremely lethal form of cancer. It attacks the membrane that lines the chest or abdominal cavity. It may occur even after limited exposure to the mineral, and it may show up after a delay of as long as 40 years.
According to the International Journal of Health Services, asbestos will cause from two to three hundred thousand premature and painful deaths between 1986 and the year 2000 in the United States alone. If that holds true, it would about equal the number of U.S. military personnel who died in combat in World War II.
An Overreaction?
However, a number of scientists charge that there has been a vast overreaction to the asbestos threat. They claim that some scientists have overplayed the dangers, leading to a widespread “fiber phobia,” a panic that has done more harm than good.
For instance, Brooke Mossman, at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, led a team of scientists in writing a report that appeared in the journal Science. Mossman and her colleagues decry the huge sums of money spent on removing asbestos from office buildings and schools, often to prevent levels of exposure so low, they say, as to be virtually harmless.
In fact, they charge that in some of the buildings slated for asbestos removal, there is actually less asbestos in the air inside than outside! Statistics are cited showing that children are in vastly greater danger from riding bicycles or from stray lightning bolts than from such low levels of asbestos. Besides, many asbestos-removal projects have been hastily undertaken and sloppily done, actually increasing the levels of asbestos in buildings by stirring up all the dust. In such cases it would have been safer simply to leave the asbestos in place and seal it off.
Furthermore, as many European countries recognize in their laws on asbestos, not all varieties of the mineral have the same needle-shaped fibers. Chrysotile asbestos is made up of longer, curly fibers that are more readily trapped and ejected by the lungs. Some 95 percent of the asbestos produced around the world is of this chrysotile variety. Amphibole asbestos, the type that seems to cause most cases of mesothelioma, is used only rarely.
Mossman and her colleagues also dismiss the ‘one-fiber theory’—the notion that even a single asbestos fiber can be lethal. After all, asbestos occurs naturally. According to an editor of Science magazine, all of us breathe about a million asbestos fibers each year!
Still, these points do not placate all scientists. Dr. Irving J. Selikoff, who did a landmark study on asbestos hazards in 1964, insists that low levels of exposure to asbestos can indeed be dangerous. Many scientists side with him. They are particularly concerned about school buildings. Simply measuring the asbestos content in the air in such buildings is meaningless, they say, since it is only very specific point sources of asbestos that present the danger, such as insulated pipes and boilers. Curious or mischievous children are likely to find and disturb such sources; custodians and janitors may be exposed regularly.
Scientists also disagree on the hazards of chrysotile asbestos. An international conference of scientists in the spring of 1990 responded to Mossman’s Science report by asserting that chrysotile is as hazardous as other types. Further, some have charged that scientists who minimize the dangers of asbestos are simply being used by the asbestos industry, which pays some of them to testify in court.
The Greed Factor
Such accusations, if true, brand the accused as greedy. The fact is, though, that greed is a running theme in the history of asbestos in this century.
The asbestos industry has been charged with outrageous greed for keeping workers in the dark about the hazards of asbestos exposure. Many court verdicts have assessed punitive damages against asbestos manufacturers for failing to make employees aware of the risks they were facing. And despite all the controversy, asbestos companies still export their products to less developed nations that have not yet banned the material—and where factory workers are not always properly protected from it.
Charges of greed have also been leveled at the asbestos-removal industry. Critics decry the exorbitant costs, which often range from $25 to $50 per square foot [$250 to $500 per sq m], well over a hundred times what it cost to install asbestos to begin with. There are also reports of corruption. Many removal firms have been caught bribing government officials to get them to overlook illegal and dangerous removal and disposal methods. Corrupt landlords have been known to hire unscrupulous firms to remove asbestos improperly just to save money. The workers they hire often have no idea of the hazards of their work, wear no protection, and have been known to dump the asbestos illegally—even in parks.
Asbestos and You
Still, there is some hope in this grim story. Awareness of the various dangers of asbestos is spreading around the world. Many governments are limiting the use of asbestos or at least ensuring that workers who deal with the mineral wear protective gear.
What if you think there is asbestos in your home or at your workplace? First of all, only a laboratory test can tell for certain whether it really is asbestos or not. Second, don’t panic. Panic has led some to try to remove the asbestos themselves, which is often illegal and much more dangerous than leaving it where it is. Get expert advice before taking any action. Only a reputable, licensed firm should be allowed to remove the asbestos or seal it off, depending on what the situation calls for.
If you have little choice but to work with asbestos, wearing protective gear is crucial, as is keeping the material wet to prevent its fibers from becoming airborne—however inconvenient all this may seem. One survey of 405 workers in Egypt found that only 31.4 percent of them wore their protective devices when working with asbestos.
Finally, don’t smoke! In a U.S. study, 34 percent of asbestos workers were found to be smokers, in spite of their high concern about cancer and in spite of the fact that smokers are some 50 times more likely to contract asbestos-related disorders.
Of course, the experts still disagree on just how dangerous asbestos is and on whether any level of exposure is safe. Perhaps they will continue to disagree, angrily hurling statistics and studies at one another, until the day when man finally stops “ruining the earth” and misusing its resources. (Revelation 11:18) But until then, perhaps the wise course is to err on the side of safety.
[Picture on page 12]
Typical asbestos setup, including decontamination chambers. From left to right: 1. work area; 2. equipment room; 3. air lock; 4. shower; 5. air lock; 6. clean room