• Tyfud@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      Asbestos is notoriously cancer causing, dangerous, EPA damning material that many, many homes, farms, buildings, etc. in America (and a few other countries) used heavily because of the properties espoused in the advertisement above.

      And many people have suffered premature deaths as a result.

      Asbestos was even used in the Wizard of Oz for the snow falling on the cast.

      I had Asbestos in my ceiling in a home I purchased and had to pay $12k to remediate it. They wore masks, had negative pressure ventilation suits on, had to get EPA certifications, checks, etc.

      It’s brutal stuff.

      • psud@aussie.zone
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        19 days ago

        My mother grew up with her mother using asbestos heat distributors on the stove (between the flame and the pot) and they wore out regularly. Grandma was apparently very annoyed when the product was banned

        Mum died in 2021 of a cardiac cancer, caused by asbestos

      • ylph@lemmy.world
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        19 days ago

        They wore masks, had negative pressure ventilation suits on

        I hope those were positive pressure suits, positive pressure helps to keep dust out of the suit. Negative pressure ventilation is used to help sick people breathe easier, like the iron lung for example.

    • gerbler@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      To quote Wikipedia:

      Asbestos is an excellent thermal and electrical insulator, and is highly fire resistant, so for much of the 20th century, it was very commonly used around the world as a building material.

      It was also later discovered to cause lung cancer, mesothelioma and also because of its fibrous structure; it breaks into lots of tiny little microscopic needles when agitated. Those little shards get inhaled and poke tiny holes in your lungs which causes Asbestosis (kind of like Emphysema for smokers).

      • psud@aussie.zone
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        19 days ago

        Sometimes the little shards make it through the lungs into the blood and thence onwards to cause cancer in any part of the body* it comes to rest

        *Except the most protected parts: brain and gonads