Maintenance Workers

Maintenance workers play a vital role in all manufacturing industries. It's their responsibility to keep all of the systems running in their factory or production facility. There are a large number of industries that are known to be hotspots for asbestos exposure. Power plants, chemical factories, paper mills, shipyards, and oil refineries are just a few of them. The one profession that they all have in common is the maintenance worker. These individuals have the potential for coming into contact with asbestos everyday, especially if they work in a facility that was built before the mid 1970s.

Asbestos Exposure

Maintenance workers crawl around and through all the systems that keep factories going. Hot water systems, HVAC systems and the machines actually used in whatever production the company is involved in may have asbestos dust present. When workers enter this area, they stir up the dust that is present and can breathe in or swallow the fibers. Even some of the materials used to build the facility can have asbestos as a main ingredient. It was added to cement blocks and the mortar that hold them together. It can be found in ceiling and floor tiles. Asbestos was even sprayed onto structural components to help protect them.

Asbestos only becomes a hazard when it has becomes airborne. When the building components that have asbestos in them are disturbed, it can create a dust that will float around in the air for quite a while. Anyone who enters the area where the particles float is likely to inhale and swallow them. Most often, maintenance workers are the only people who may enter some of these areas and stir up the dust.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed regulations and rules for dealing with asbestos. For the most part, if people don't have to mess with asbestos it's best to just leave it alone. If, after air testing, the concentration of asbestos particles is found to be too high, abatement must be performed. The EPA has ruled that only contractors with special knowledge, tools and certification can legally remove asbestos containing materials (ACMs).

Manufacturing and Construction Asbestos Uses

While there are over an estimated 3,000 products that contain asbestos fibers, the most popular use was as an insulator. It was wrapped around pipes and stuffed into machines to help hold heat and dampen sound. Asbestos is really only dangerous when it's disturbed and the dust become airborne. Today, the risks attributed to asbestos exposure, which we'll get into a bit further down, are well known. But, if you or someone you know worked in maintenance during the middle of the 1900s, there is a very good chance that asbestos exposure was common.

Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral that can be found in deposits on about every continent on the planet. It's found in the form of long, thin fibers. These fibers are very easy to work with and can be mixed with a lot of different materials to create a variety of products. Asbestos has several other good qualities that make it appealing for use. It resists heat and flame, electricity and chemical burns. It dampens sound and the fibers are so easy to work with that it can even be woven into a fabric.

What Maintenance Workers Should Know

There are two main diseases that are related to asbestos. The first, and most common, is called asbestosis. Once the fibers are inhaled, they enter the lungs and sit there. As the lungs expand and contract with breathing, the fibers scratch up and do damage to the delicate tissues in the lungs. The lungs heal themselves and scar tissues form. The scar tissue is typically unable to pull the oxygen out of the air that the body needs to function. Once the level of damage has reached a certain extent, lung capacity is greatly diminished and the victim starts to have trouble catching their breath. There is no cure for asbestosis. It is treatable, however, if it's caught early enough. In extreme situations, it's possible to perform a lung transplant to save the patients life, but, many people do die from asbestosis.

While asbestosis is the most common asbestos related disease, there is another that is much more fatal. The asbestos particles are a carcinogen that can cause tumors to form in the mesothelium, which later results in mesothelioma cancer. The mesothelium is a protective lining that covers most of the vital organs in the body and lines the inside of both the chest and stomach cavities. When the tumors form, they can affect the organs that are covered by this protective layer. The tumors also metastasize quickly and spread the cancer to other parts of the body. Again, there is no cure for this cancer and there aren't really any affective treatments, at least at the moment. Unfortunately, the average lifespan of a victim of mesothelioma is eighteen months.

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