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Post by gato on Nov 19, 2023 7:58:26 GMT -5
When I lived in my condo, back in 2002, I had a measured 5K worked out, that would take me on a fast walk through the sidewalks of my neighborhood. On one of these exercise jaunts, I noted a' for sale' sign on a house, that hadn't been there the day before. Long story short, I bought the place.
I continued living in my condo, while renovation went on at the house for the next 6 weeks. I would stop in now and then to check on progress. Once the wall to wall carpeting was removed I could see that asbestos floor tiles had been laid down on the slab floors when the house was new. These would have to come out. When I checked in the following morning, I was appalled to find the workers chiseling the stuff up amid clouds of asbestos dust. I took the crew leader aside and learned that he had never heard of the link between asbestos and lung cancer; "I've been doing it this way for years."
At my insistence, from that moment on, all the tile removal was done with the floor soaked to eliminate the dust, and the tiles bagged up and moved outside. It took longer to complete the job, and I'm sure the Spanish speaking crew had their share of laughs about the "crazy gringo" who paid extra for this exotic style of floor tile removal. Did they go back to the old way at their next job? Probably.
The contractor I had hired to oversee all aspects of the renovation died of lung cancer a few years later; putting up my backyard shed was his last job. Of course, he smoked as well, so who knows?
What brought all this back from my memory banks, was an article in the paper this morning about another lung killer: silicosis, caused by the dust from cutting and grinding synthetic granite / marble. This stuff gets inhaled either at the work site or during the manufacture , causing preventable, deadly lung disease. During my renovation, I had synthetic granite installed in my kitchen and bathrooms. Did I unknowingly contribute to even more high risk exposure for the renovation crew? Do home owners who remain on-site during faux granite/marble installations know what's in the air they're breathing?
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Post by Taildragger on Nov 19, 2023 10:07:01 GMT -5
Same stuff killed Delbert, the guy I used to go to for front end alignments. His bread and butter was brake jobs.
I remember blowing the brake dust out of the drums and backing plates of my Volkswagens when I would replace the shoes. Fortunately, I only did that occasionally, unlike Delbert, who did several brake jobs a day for decades (maskless, of course).
With all the surfboards I've built and repaired, it's lucky I started wearing a respirator early on or I'd probably have emphysema or worse by now from all the fiberglas dust to which I've been exposed.
My former neighbor, George (RIP) lost a lung after being chronically exposed to asbestos working in the shipyards during WWII. I lost touch with him after moving to a different neighborhood, so am not sure what finally killed him.
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Post by RufusTeleStrat on Nov 19, 2023 13:35:14 GMT -5
I often wonder how much we are exposed to on a daily basis that we have no indication is there. Years riding grey ships with numbers that were built in the 50s rife with asbestos everything, from insulation to wires to tiles on the steel decks. The brake dust from trucks not registered in the US who have brakes made from who knows what.
Old buildings and blown in insulation or wall flocking or ceiling coating that is removed. At one time it was a wonder product. Heck Adams had a pocket lined with it so he could store a lit cigarette in his pocket. (Adams family)
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Post by rickyguitar on Nov 19, 2023 20:01:44 GMT -5
Had a neighbor years back who had lost a lung from asbestos exposure when he was a kid (playing in piles of it).
We lived over 8k feet and it was too much for him. They sold and moved to a lower elevation. I am sure he has passed by now.
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Post by tahitijack on Nov 20, 2023 11:55:42 GMT -5
In the early 70s I briefly worked in a warehouse that stocked Johns Manville asbestos products. Although I could see the dust when the sun shine came through the skylights, it never occurred to me that it might be a health hazard.
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Post by LTB on Nov 26, 2023 12:54:21 GMT -5
I was exposed to asbestos brake dust, toxic oil leaking from a very large 600 volt capacitors in motor controllers on the DFW Airport automated train system, lead solder, Trichloroethylene used to remove Humiseal conformal coating on circuit boards, glycol being sprayed on the guideway to melt ice and who on earth knows what else. It was disconcerting in 2000’s we had to have guys in special suits where none of their skin touched them or inhaled them to remove and properly dispose of the capacitors.
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Post by reverendrob on Nov 26, 2023 13:03:00 GMT -5
My "playground" was a Superfund site, industrial junk all over. I've often wondered if it's what caused the lympedema later.
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Post by tahitijack on Nov 26, 2023 13:11:49 GMT -5
On a current topic, the fire that burned Lahaina, Maui to the ground is presenting problems similar to the 9/11 WTC, due to the carcinogens in the ground and air. Clean up and rebuild is by necessity going slowly to avoid long-term health issues.
All this has divided the county into two factions. One extreme side says no rebuild because the land is now a sacred burial ground of their ohana. The other extreme points out Maui can not continue to loose $14 million a day from the shutdown of tourism.
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Post by Taildragger on Nov 26, 2023 13:17:40 GMT -5
I did stone lithography and commercial screen printing back in the pre-OSHA days (early 1970s). All the inks were petroleum-based. We used to wallow in paint-thinner, benzene, acetone, lacquer thinner, potassium bi-chromate, industrial-strength Clorox and unvented carbon arc lamp fumes: no masks/respirators and inadequate gloves that would crack and let the toxins seep in on your hands. A couple of the guys used to smoke cigarettes around the fumes. Given that exposure, I feel really lucky that I've made it this far without coming down with cancer. Just based on how strange I often felt at work, I chose to switch to a different vocation after a couple of years, which is probably what saved me. When you're young, your system is better at flushing out the poisons and repairing any damage, especially if the exposure doesn't go on for too long.
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Post by reverendrob on Nov 26, 2023 13:20:12 GMT -5
I did stone lithography and commercial screen printing back in the pre-OSHA days (early 1970s). All the inks were petroleum-based. We used to wallow in paint-thinner, benzene, acetone, lacquer thinner, potassium bi-chromate, industrial-strength Clorox and unvented carbon arc lamp fumes: no masks/respirators and inadequate gloves that would crack and let the toxins seep in on your hands. A couple of the guys used to smoke cigarettes around the fumes. Given that exposure, I feel really lucky that I've made it this far without coming down with cancer. Just based on how strange I often felt at work, I chose to switch to a different vocation after a couple of years, which is probably what saved me. When you're young, your system is better at flushing out the poisons and repairing any damage, especially if the exposure doesn't go on for too long. Yea, I feel you, my gun shop's basement test range didn't have air filtration. I used it as little as possible, but one of the other guys would cough out ugly dust. I stopped letting him even use it for a minute because he didn't have any sense. I was young and invulnerable then too, and had no longterm issues (I did get my blood lead levels tested regularly though) |
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Post by Opie on Nov 26, 2023 20:40:21 GMT -5
When I was twenty I worked in a trawler factory building mainly fishing trawlers made of fiberglass. As if that wasn't bad enough, they used to mix pure asbestos in fiberglass resin to create a putty used to fill the gaps between the hull and cabins, or pretty much anywhere they needed to fill. Then workers would use air grinders to sand it down flush. Giant hanger would be filled with dust all day, every day. We were offered paper dust masks, but in the Florida summer heat and humidity one would last 10 minutes max before the paper mask turned to slush on your face. Most did without. This was the early 70's when asbestos dangers were just beginning to be known. Me and a buddy did some research and found an alternative non-asbestos product that cost a couple bucks more than what they were using. We spread that info among the workers which caused management to acquiesce and switch over. A week later, me and my bud where laid off, another week later I learned they returned to using the pure asbestos again.
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