Forge Men

Asbestos has been in use for centuries. It's a naturally occurring mineral that takes the form of long thin fibers. It's found all over the world and there are several different types. All of them, however, have some qualities, besides being cheap, that makes it very appealing for use in many different professions.

Many professions and industries are known to have high risks for asbestos exposure. At least, this was true before the early 1980's. For the most part, asbestos was banned for use in America and a lot of other countries. There are still a few industries that currently use asbestos, but only under tightly controlled situations. Ship builders, power plant workers, oil refinery workers, the construction industry and companies that forged iron were just a few of the high risk occupations.

Asbestos Exposure

For those of you who don't know, forging typically refers to the process of taking iron ore and turning into usable wrought iron bars, which involves a lot of heat. Asbestos is fireproof and resistant to heat. It also doesn't react with many chemicals and doesn't conduct electricity. When the fibers are added to different asbestos products, it increases the strength without overly adding to the weight. Most often, asbestos was used as insulation for pipes, walls and even in some machines. When you combine these positive attributes with the fact that it's cheap and easy to get, you find that asbestos was ideal for a wide variety of uses. It really became popular in the mid to late 1800's as the Age of Industry got rolling and factories and other manufacturing facilities, like iron forges, were under construction.

The problem with asbestos is it's very dangerous for people who are exposed to the dust it produces. Asbestos is friable, which means that the fibers break off from the main chunk very easily, and when the fibers are freed into the air they can be inhaled and swallowed by anyone in the area. Asbestos dust can be produced by any number of circumstances. When it is used in machinery, the vibrations that occur as the machines are in operation can even shake dust free and set it to floating in the air. The risks of exposure to asbestos are outlined in a little more detail below.

Forge Asbestos Use

Someone who works in a forge is exposed to high levels of heat all day. Not only was asbestos used to help insulate many of the pipes and machines used in the process, it was also made into fireproof and heat resistant suits that the forge men could where to help protect them. The unfortunate part of this that the very suits made to protect them often did a lot of damage. Typically, there was an outer fabric covering the asbestos. When the fabric would wear through, it would expose the asbestos which would begin to fall apart and release fibers into the air. Most of the time, the asbestos suits would include a hood to protect the head and face. Someone wearing an asbestos suit that was in bad repair would spend the entire day breathing in asbestos fibers.

What Forge Men Should Know

It sometimes takes years for the damage done to the body to show up. When someone is exposed to asbestos dust they swallow and inhale the fibers. While the swallowed fibers often simply pass through the body, the ones that are inhaled have no where to go. They sit in the lungs and can do some pretty severe damage. The movement of the lungs as a person breathes causes the fibers to rub against the fragile tissues inside the lungs. Over time, the lungs become scarred and lose their ability to take oxygen from the air. Once the scarring becomes so bad, the victim may have trouble breathing. While many people do die from this condition, it is treatable if caught early enough, but it's not curable.

The other condition that affects those who have been exposed to asbestos is called mesothelioma. This cancer is incredibly deadly. Once a person has been diagnosed with mesothelioma the average lifespan is eighteen months. The fibers are a carcinogen that can cause tumors to develop in the mesothelium, which is the lining that protects most of the organs that are found in the chest in stomach. Once the tumors develop, they metastasize quickly and spread the cancer all through the body.

If you or anyone you know worked in a forge during the middle of the 1900's, you need to get a check up right away. There are still cases being seen in courts regarding asbestos exposure. The experts believe the number of asbestos related medical cases will continue to rise until about 2015 and then drop off quickly.

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