The risks of contracting mesothelioma are at the forefront of asbestos exposure concerns, but there are varieties of cancers and other health effects that can also occur when someone is exposed to asbestos.

What’s worse, asbestos exposure can occur in unforeseen and often overlooked ways, including environmental exposure. Here’s what you need to know about the risks of environmental asbestos exposure and how to remain cautious.

Asbestos is an Environmental Problem

In the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution, subsequent generations have experienced firsthand that many hazardous situations occurred in the name of production and process innovation. These kinds of hazards included the materials being used, the working conditions of employees, and the lack of protocols to ensure that communities were safe from the output of industrial facilities. We learned our lesson, but only after the damage was done in during this era.

Surprisingly, asbestos was at the forefront of this revolutionary period, and it was celebrated as a miracle mineral that could do everything from strengthening delicate production materials, to insulating and fireproofing high-volume production machinery in high heat environments. Asbestos was a cheap production and manufacturing material used widely throughout the world, but its use can come with a high cost of a different kind.

The Asbestos Industry Cover-up

Despite what the asbestos industry was already well-aware of, workers remained under the impression that asbestos was safe and harmless to use and be around during the work day. Unfortunately, the trend of asbestos-related illnesses began to sound the alarm that this product was far from safe. It was deadly.

Banned But Still Dangerous

Eventually, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned most forms of asbestos in industry use, causing companies to pivot toward safer alternatives. This was a slow process, and even today, there are more regulations in place by the EPA which requires companies to double down on reporting and record keeping processes, in the name of transparency.

These kinds of regulations are helpful in keeping people safe from otherwise unknown dangers, but they haven’t made risk factors disappear. In fact, it’s important to note that there are numerous asbestos risk factors well beyond the workplace.

Even if every company in the country completely stopped using any form of asbestos today, there would remain a looming environmental threat, though one that is virtually invisible to the naked eye. This has to do with the presence of remaining asbestos containing materials (ACMs) still present in numerous structures around America.

Back when the EPA banned most forms of ACMs, companies pivoted from those types of materials, but what about all the structures and products that were already on the market prior to the 1980s ban? In most cases, they still remain today. These include:

Asbestos artifacts (old asbestos-containing products in antique stores and resale sites)
Manufacturing plants built during or before the 1980s
Homes built during or before the 1980s
Industrial buildings and worksites built during or before the 1980s
Schools, hospitals and university campuses built during or before the 1980s
Military installations built during or before the 1980s

In short, virtually any place that was built before the ban most likely contains some form of asbestos. The reason for this is because of how widespread asbestos usage was before this time. Asbestos was used in everything from cement to insulation and even roofing materials.

It was used below, within, and on top of most structures because of how durable it was as a building and manufacturing material. While some places have begun the long and expensive process of asbestos remediation, the thought of entirely removing ACMs from structures is almost too expensive and undoable to consider as a viable option.

Friable and Deadly

This point isn’t entirely dangerous in and of itself. As long as asbestos materials as undamaged and undisturbed, they pose little to no risk of exposure. However, when ACMs are damaged from things like weather conditions, renovations, or fires, asbestos fibers begin to break away and be exposed. This condition is known as asbestos friable and when this happens, the small fibers, invisible to the naked eye, become airborne.

Airborne asbestos fibers can travel in a variety of ways. First, people can carry these invisible fibers on their clothes and tools, taking them from the confines of the workplace into the unsuspecting presence of spouses and children in their homes. This also includes adjacent work buildings, such as administrative offices, places that are assumed to be far enough away from the work to be deemed safe.

Second, airborne asbestos can be spread numerous miles from wind or down stream in the case of water contamination. This is a growing concern for old asbestos mine sites, dilapidated manufacturing buildings, and especially ground zero areas in the aftermath of hurricanes, tornados, fires, earthquakes, and flooding. Many communities find themselves in a dangerous situation when these kinds of events occur, such as the recent Tustin blimp hanger fire.

Mesothelioma and More

Unfortunately, people are at equal risk in the case of environmental asbestos exposure as facility workers who handle asbestos. Asbestos fibers do not become less deadly or less carcinogen in relation to how someone is exposed. Rather, if someone is exposed, asbestos can and will do equal damage to the human body. It plays no favorites.

Mesotelioma is well worth noting as a potential threat for those exposed to environmental conditions of asbestos and that is certainly the most aggressive form of cancer attributed to asbestos, but there are many more health conditions that can occur as well. These include:

Lung, ovarian, and esophageal cancers
Asbestosis, a chronic lung condition
Pleural Plaques, a lung condition that often leads to other respiratory complications

Unfortunately, since asbestos fibers are microscopic and do not have any smell or taste, most individuals who are exposed to asbestos environmentally are completely unaware that they have come into contact with asbestos fibers. In many cases, due to the latency of asbestos symptoms, life goes on normally for many decades. Over time however, the various symptoms begin to set in at an aggressive rate.

When this happens, it is imperative to seek professional help immediately and being medical treatment for asbestos illnesses and asbestos-related cancers. Most people are taken by surprise at this point and are often left paralyzed by the high cost of asbestos treatment, but it’s important to know that there are financial compensation options available for you at no cost and with no need to file a lawsuit.

If you or someone you know has contracted an asbestos-related illness from environmental exposure, reach out to our professionals today at asbestosclaims.law to help secure the compensation you need.