ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Big Mistake

Russ,
Sorry to hear about your accidental encounter. Any exposure is not a good thing.... but... I've got a white area in my lungs that ain't cancer, had it for a long time before they knew it was a hazard.... PLUMBERS use to mix it???? how 'bout us sparkies?? We used to coat medium voltage cables with it all the time, I'll try to forward a pic to Bill so you guys can see what it looks like just in case.

I'm not to worried (and I smoke too) no one ever died of good health, and I haven't heard of anyone living forever yet, something will (eventually) take you outta here, but, in your case, it is not likely to be asbestos.

See a doctor??? For what, this stuff takes YEARS to damage you, no one ever died instantaneously of asbestos exposure unless a bale fell on them

FYI, the largest naturally occurring vein of asbestos resides in Fairfax County, VA (where I live) and no ones moved the homeowners out yet. IOW, it's worth taking seriously, but sure as hell isn't worth losing sleep over.

Just my opinion.

So long asbestos is left alone and not interferred with, it is a pretty inert compound. The problem is when people start digging into it or disturbing it in some other way.

AR,

Asbestos comes in many flavors. The most harmful types have barbs on the edges of the fiber that cause the whole fiber to burrow in and continually irritate. Other fibers are smoother and can be carried out of the lungs with normal expectoration, etc.

Have a lab analyze the material you were cutting. This will give you hard tech on which to base informed medical discisions (if any).

The only other action I would take, were I in your shoes, is to document the heck out of this incident including photos, the lab analysis (as mentioned above) and if you can get it, a signed & dated statement or other type of proof that the individual you're working for or with (homeowner, GC, their insurance agent, or independent qualified inspector, lab tech, etc) of where & when the exposure occurred and that the asbestos was known to be there prior to your work and that you were not made aware of its location. This may establish culpability on the part of the homeowner/GC/whomever hired you if you should have a resulting disease or condition.

Most lung diseases result from exposures encountered much earlier or repeatedly (as in the case with smoking) - - this is not to say 'repeated' exposure necessarily in the case of asbestos but the condition takes a long time to manifest itself into difficulties. If the fiber is there but the lung tolerates it for a long time, it's difficult to establish the exposure or contact moment unless the exposure is limited to a certain point in time.

I stopped reading after the "Cancer sticks" comment. Why peole smoke I will never understand. To then worry about 5 seconds exposure to asbestos seems really out there. ***Not meant to flame here but come on.

hey guys look on the bright side, ANY fiber that is of the same size and shape as the asbestos fibers can cause the dreaded mesothilioma (sp?)...in an hvac electrical class i was in last year we discussed a study that found that fiberglass causes the same thing, just takes longer to show up than the 20-50 years asbestos does....if i can find a copy of it ill post it on here, and for all of us who work on rooftop equipment, all that pigeon poop you see... numerous studys show that a high exposure to that in the air for 15-20 minutes is far worse than smoking for a lifetime....just somthing to think about

Rob

When people light up a cigarette and force me to ingest their unsavory exhaust, over time it has inspired me to carry a baggy of feces and a personal fan, and to open it and waft the aroma into their face and say, "I like to do this after meals and after making love."

Now I'll have to consider sometimes switching to a handful of asbestos to get my point across! Thanks for the idea!

... Point taken,people...

Attic rat, my Dad was a boilermaker for the RR. He was exposed to asbestos for years, they used to have snowball fights with it, and he suffered no long term damage from it. Our generations problem,I'm 46, will be fiberglass. It acts similiar to asbestos when inhaled. It irritiates the lungs and causes them to form scar tissue around the fibers.