Russia and China still use it loads.
Comment on Magic Mineral
troyunrau@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
I’m pretty sure we could go back to using it, with more precautions in place, better binders, etc. Hell, it’s still used in many parts of the world, and it occurs naturally all over the fucking place. But, alas, lawyers would have to stop salivating at every mention of the word.
In geoscience, we started using the word asbestoform to describe minerals with fibrous habits so we don’t get lawyers showing up to destroy all of our rock samples and turn every geoscience facility into a superfund site.
SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
troyunrau@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
As with all research papers published out of China, you take their numbers with a grain of salt. They report approximately 2000 cases per year of mesothelioma, and of those, only 15% are definitively asbestos exposure related. So about 300 per year. Of those cases, over 80% are asbestos industry (improper safety measures for repeated occupational exposure).
Compared to fire related deaths prevented, it’s probably a good trade for China. Probably.
AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Is there a way to keep it inert when the next homeowner starts tearing down drywall and drilling holes in stuff?
InverseParallax@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Not really, but you mark is clearly everywhere and bond it in fire resistant epoxy.
People will learn when they drill into their wall and hit epoxy that means something.
AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
That helps somewhat, but if the house gets demolished with a bulldozer that’s still a lot of asbestos floating around again. The point is, you don’t know what will happen to it in the future, and it’s just not safe to have semi hazardous material lying around everywhere.
troyunrau@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
It’s pretty unlikely the homeowner is bulldozing the house themselves. So likely it’s handled by professionals.
Epoxied asbestos is approximately as dangerous as epoxied fibreglass – add some dust suppression and have at it.