LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Asbestos: Asbestos Worker
built 201 days ago
Asbestos is a general name that applies to several types of fibrous silicate minerals. Historically, asbestos is best known for its resistance to flame and its ability to be woven into cloth. Because of these properties, it was used to make fireproof stage curtains for theaters, as well as heat-resistant clothing for metal workers and firefighters. More modern applications of asbestos take advantage of its chemical resistance and the reinforcing properties of its fibers to produce asbestos-reinforced cement products including pipes, sheets, and shingles used in building construction. Asbestos is ... used as insulation for rocket engines on the space shuttle and as a component in the electrolytic cells that make oxygen on submerged nuclear submarines. Much of the chlorine for bleach, cleansers, and disinfectants is produced using asbestos products.
Source:
"Asbestos is the most studied of all occupational carcinogens and, apart from tobacco, the most studied cause of lung cancer. It may therefore surprise the general reader that there is an important area of uncertainty about the relationship between inhaled asbestos and the resulting increase in risk of lung cancer. At issue is whether asbestos-attributable lung cancers are always associated with asbestos-induced lung fibrosis -- that is, asbestosis. This uncertainty has engendered a heated controversy, fuelled by important implications for regulation, workers' compensation, and litigation."
Source:
Asbestos mainly affects the lungs: Changes in the membrane surrounding the lung are common in workers exposed to asbestos. These lung changes are ... sometimes found in people living in areas with high levels of asbestos in the air. Breathing very high levels of asbestos may result in a slow buildup of scar-like tissue in the lungs and in the membrane that surrounds the lungs. People with asbestosis have shortness of breath, often along with a cough and sometimes heart enlargement. This is chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD), a serious disease that can lead to disability or death.
Source:
Asbestos workers began forming unions and the presence of unions facilitated the transition from individual workers reporting asbestos-related injuries to the extensive epidemiological data available today. Unions ... provided workers with access to lawyers who developed an expertise in the area. Although the early cases were often unsuccessful, as plaintiff lawyers developed further evidence and expertise, there was a sudden explosion of asbestos litigation.[17]
Source:
Asbestos fibers are aerodynamic and so small that one fiber cannot be seen by the naked eye. By the 1930s, researchers studying industrial disease realized that if workers could see dust from asbestos products in the air, those workers were being exposed to dangerous levels of asbestos fibers. When workers saw asbestos dust floating in the air in their workspace, that dust cloud probably contained millions of dangerous asbestos fibers.
Source:
Asbestos–related lung disease occurred at very high rates toward the middle of the 20th century, when patients who were exposed decades earlier to asbestos eventually developed disease. British asbestos workers were among the first who were observed to have lung cancer related to asbestos.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Asbestos Worker