On asbestos, thousands of state workers work day in and day out in buildings full of asbestos (I’m on contract at a State University) and our children go to schools full of it.
That's a different type of asbestos that is one of the most commonly encountered minerals in the environment (
chrysotile asbestos). San Francisco and other places, such as Asbestos, Canada, have so much of it that it vastly exceeds the EPA's limits but neither of these places has any higher level of respiratory disease associated with it than other places with lower exposures. It's the other rarely used form of asbestos (amphibole) that is associated with certain extremely rare types of cancer, such as mesothelioma. This type of cancer was most frequently found among certain shipyard workers from the WWII era who were also smokers. The asbestos used in schools (and partially in the World Trade Center) was chrysotile asbestos and doesn't pose a health risk. The greatest harm from asbestos came from Congress failing to make a distinction between the different types of asbestos, giving the EPA and ambulance chaser lawyers an easy way to destroy large businesses while making a pile of cash.
aruanan:
This is very controversial topic, and sent me off researching chrysotile vs. amphibole. I’m not sure that it has been fully determined yet, but thanks for bringing it up.
You are correct that most asbestos used in non-shipboard environments is chrysotile. I just got lab reports back on a flexible duct connection from 1957 that was 60% chrysotile. I didn’t realize the differences. Thanks for pointing it out. My experience to date has given me some decent radar in determining ACMs visually. This specific sample didn’t ping my radar as it was like a heavy cable knit cotton sweater in appearance and didn’t show any of the spiky, crystal looking stuff that usually clues me into it. I knew that chrysotile was often woven but never really put two and two together.