Posted by Elise Clayton | Posted in Legal | Posted on 23-04-2011
Tags: Education, law, learning, Legal, recreation
Asbestos is a form of silicate mineral that is widely employed for commercial purposes. There are some important facts about asbestos everyone should know. They are extensively used in workshops and factories because of their flexibility, resistance to heat, chemical and electric damage, flexibility and high tensile strength. Cement is required for the construction of buildings and fibers are used with the mixture. They are also commonly woven into fabrics.
There are two general categories of asbestos, the serpentine class and the amphibole class. The central difference between these two categorizes are their differences in their respective chemical compositions and how dangerous they are as a health hazard when inhaled by humans.
Most fibers are extremely small in width, about 3.0-20.0 micrometers wide and may be as slim as 0.01 micrometers. As such, they remain invisible to the unaided human eye. When chunks of these minerals have their crystal lattices broken by sufficient force, they break up into much thinner and smaller fibers. If this process continues, the fibers get small enough to become airborne and easily exposed to the human respiratory system.
Most commercial forms of the mineral may induce cancer in humans and as such humans should always take extra precautions when handling them. In particular, Amosite and Crocidolite can remain in the lungs of exposed people for very long periods of time which makes them two of the most dangerous forms of the substance. Other forms of the mineral may induce other harmful effects as well.
Chrysolite has been known to produce tumors in many people and even animals while sometimes even causing them to develop Mesotheliomas, a particularly rare and malignant form of cancer that develops from the protective lining that covers most of the body’s internal organs.
Common victims to asbestos-poisoning are factory or mine workers as they are constantly exposed to the mineral on a daily basis when handling the minerals. As such, they are likely to inhale concentrated forms of fibers over an extended period of time. However, diseases are not likely to develop from long, low-level or brief, high-level exposures of the mineral.
Additionally there are several essential things to know about its control measures. For instance, the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States has announced that consumer products may legally contain small portions of asbestos while the Occupational Safety & Health Administration has tried to help workers by warning employers or managers not to expose them to more than 100,000 asbestos fibers having lengths equal to or smaller than 5 micrometers for every cubic meter of air in the workplace for an average eight-hour shift.
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