AsbestosWhat

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Asbestos:What’s This Stuff? Essay, Research Paper ASBESTOS: WHAT IS THIS STUFF? Six months ago, my husband and I purchased a small piece of property in Manhattan, Kansas to start our own computer repair business. The property was in desperate need of remodeling, but we needed to keep expenses to a minimium in order to make any profit. We had two other employees besides ourselves at this time, but as business started to pick up, we had to hire five more technicians to keep up with all the orders that were coming in. Our space was getting limited and then we were left with the decision that it was now time to get ready to remodel the building. We hired our own staff to help with the remodeling, at their request for the overtime and their experience with this type of work.

This was more economical for us, since we could just pay our own employees overtime instead of hiring contractors to come in and do the work at a more expensive rate. The construction team began tearing down walls and removing ceiling tiles in a part of the building that was not used before. One of the employee?s discovers a white powdery substance during this process that he is to believe is asbestos. That next morning, the employees come to me to report the case of this dangerous material. I didn?t know what to do since I was no expert on this type of stuff. I had decided to call the county health department to get some information on such a material called asbestos. The health department had given me some material to read on asbestos that came from the Department of Labor, it

read: Asbestos is a group of naturally occurring minerals. The three most common types of asbestos are: a)chrysotile b)amosite c) crocidolite Asbestos is commonly used as an acoustic insulator, thermal insulation, fire proofing and in other building materials. Asbestos fibers are incredibly strong and have properties that make them resistant to heat. Asbestos is often found in ceiling tiles, pipe and vessel insulation, blown on to structural beams and ceilings, in floor tile, linoleum and mastic. Asbestos is made up of microscopic bundles of fibers that may become airborne when distributed. These fibers get into the air and may become inhaled into the lungs, where they may cause significant health problems. Researchers still have not determined a “safe level” of exposure but

we know the greater and the longer the exposure, the greater the risk of contracting an asbestos related disease. (Department of Labor, 1998) This had given me a general ideal of what this material was contained of but I had not known that this was harmful to your health if inhaled. I immediately began to panic for my employees and myself because we had been exposed to the substance for a long period of time and not knowing that it could be causing health concerns was worrying me. I then investigated the diseases that this substance may cause if inhaled for over a period of time. I looked up on the internet about asbestos related diseases at ?The Official Website Of National Cancer Institute? at www.graylab.ac.uk/cancernet/600321.html. It has a lot of helpful information on

asbestos related diseases. According to the report, asbestos caused four serious diseases: lung cancer, mesothelioma, digestive system cancer, and asbestosis. The information I found on these four types were: Lung cancer refers to any type of malignant tumor that originates in the lung itself (unlike mesothelioma, which is in the pleural lining around the lung.) Adding to the complexity of understanding the relationship between lung cancer and asbestos exposure is the issue of smoking. There is a synergistic relationship between asbestos exposure and smoking. What this means is that although workers who have been exposed to asbestos have a higher risk of developing lung cancer, it is also well known that smokers have a higher risk of developing lung cancer; but the cancer risk of