Asbestos was once a commonly used building material because it is not affected by fire, heat, acid, or chemicals and does not conduct electricity. Asbestos fibers have an enormous tensile strength. Now, however, it is a widely known carcinogen, and once released into the air, can cause serious respiratory diseases, such as asbestosis, mesothelioma, lung cancer, laryngeal cancer, ovarian cancer, colon and rectal cancer, gastrointestinal problems, and other cancers, as it passes through the air into a person’s bloodstream.
About 125 million people around the world are exposed to asbestos in their work environments. Especially at risk were the “baby boomers,” from the 1950s.
demand for asbestos increased dramatically from 1900 to the early 1970s. By 1950, the United States was the world’s largest user of asbestos. However, as health and liability issues became apparent, asbestos demand declined rapidly after 1973. Before the 1980s, asbestos was produced in California, Arizona, North Carolina, and Vermont; however, most of these facilities suspended mining operations in the 1970s, and the last U.S. asbestos mine closed in 2002 . In 2003, there were two U.S. suppliers of asbestos.
Production of asbestos has signigicanly decreased as well as domestic consumption from imports and exports containing asbestos related products decreased as well as the stock of asbestos-containing products dwindled. Most of the asbestos used in the United States is imported from Canada.. Asbestos exports also peaked in 1973 and has declined consideably by 2001.
Right after World War II and during the industrial expansion within the United States, asbestos was used in thousands of schools, homes and structural buildings. Structural components like asbestos panels were also used. In residences, asbestos was often a component of a type of flocked acoustic ceiling called “popcorn ceiling” or “cottage cheese ceiling”, until its production was banned in the U.S. in 1978. However, the ban allowed installers to use up remaining stocks, so houses built as late as 1986 could still have asbestos in their acoustic ceilings.
Asbestos dust which can be released into the air as structures begin to deteriorate, such as ceilings beginning to peel back allowing the asbestos contained begin to seep out into the environment. Large numbers of people have been exposed to the highly dangerous asbestos dust. Once asbestos dust becomes airborne, it is extremely difficult to control, and communities can be exposed to asbestos, including women and young children. Now, not only were miners and men working within the fields of manufacturing and work environments that used asbestos in production, but women as well began to become diagnosed with mesothelioma. The risk of developing asbestos-related cancer can now also be a result of environmental exposure and communities surrounding old mines and mills are beginning to become affected as parts of contaminated communities. Because patients usually do not realize they are being exposed, mesothelioma can show up in women, men, and children who were continually exposed or especially dangerous, who have inhaled asbestos fibers, often for years or decades.
In the past thirty (30) years, 171,500 workers in the United States have died of asbestos-related cancers, the worst occupational health disaster of the century. An additional 119,000 deaths in the U.S. are expected before the epidemic winds down in 2025. Unsafe use of asbestos in poorer nations is anticipated causing 30,000 cancer deaths per year for the foreseeable future. The World Health Organization became active in the fight to ban the use of asbestos in (insert date),as the use of asbestos continued to be used in other developing countries. Globally, it is estimated that 125 million people are still being exposed to asbestos in the workplace to date.
Schools have especially been affected by asbestos. The U.S. Congress passed the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act in 1986. It ordered school districts to locate all asbestos in their buildings and create a plan to manage it. It also imposed tight regulations on asbestos removal, raising costs and ensuring that the image of asbestos-removal workers in spacesuits would keep fears high.
Asbestos removal, the biggest environmental cleanup project in U.S. history, has cost an estimated $50 billion over the past 20 years. It has forced schools to lay off teachers, caused owners to abandon buildings and added considerably to the cost of remodeling many houses. However, considering the number of lives that have been affected by Mesothelioma and other asbestos related diseases, no amount of money spent on asbestos abatement is too much.
Exposure to asbestos causes a range of diseases, such as lung cancer, mesothelioma, asbestosis, as well as pleural plaques, thickening and effusions, as well as laryngeal and other cancers, and because of its historical and commercial usefulness, and its extraordinary tensile strength which has continued to withstand the elements, asbestos abatement is one of the only methods to eliminate asbestos related diseases worldwide.
