Mixing Operatives

Asbestos-related diseases such as malignant mesothelioma and asbestosis generally develop in people who experience prolonged or high level asbestos exposure. This type of exposure most frequently occurs to people who work or have worked in high-risk occupations. In other cases, secondary exposure can occur. This is commonly a result when people work in at-risk occupations work without protective equipment, and end up transporting asbestos fibers home on their clothing.

In general, people who worked in construction or shipbuilding prior to the 1980s are most at risk of asbestos exposure, as the peak period of industrial asbestos use was between the 1940s and 1980s. However, some types of workers are still at risk, as their work may involve asbestos removal and other activities that involve exposure. For mixing operatives, the exposure risk was high and almost constant because the very nature of their work often involved asbestos-containing substances. The mixing of these substances often caused the creation and dispersion of asbestos dust.

Asbestos Exposure

Asbestos is a fibrous mineral with high tensile strength, and high resistance to chemical and thermal degradation. When added to construction materials, asbestos could provide additional strength, stability, and resistance to heat and flame. Many different types of cement mixes had asbestos added to them, to improve the thermal, chemical, and physical stability of the finished cement.

The job of mixing operatives can vary depending on the nature of their employment. In construction, the mixing operative uses a cement mixer or similar machine to mix dry cement and water. They might also be involved in mixing different quantities of dry materials together to alter the properties of the finished cement.

This type of work meant exposure to large quantities of dust, and even in cases where workers wore dust masks, asbestos fibers might still cling to clothing, hair, or skin. Many workers simply weren't supplied with masks that were capable of filtering out asbestos particles.

The enormous quantities of asbestos dust that were often created - and the lack of protective equipment for some workers - meant that exposure risks also existed for the families of mixing operatives. If a worker brought home asbestos dust on their clothing, anyone involved in washing, shaking or otherwise handling the items could potentially create clouds of asbestos dust that would present a high exposure risk.

Mixing Operatives Asbestos Uses

The most predominant use of asbestos that might have presented an exposure risk for mixing operatives was the use of the substance in concrete mixes and insulation. In these products asbestos was used to improve heat resistance and stability of the products.

For mixing operatives, however, the addition of asbestos made their work potentially deadly. Cement mixing in particular was an occupation that created enormous clouds of dust: the literal addition of asbestos to the mix meant those clouds could cause disease in anyone nearby who was not protected from exposure.

Some workers even scooped asbestos fibers from bins by hand, to add them to concrete and other mixes. A concrete mix, once created, was bagged and then stored until needed. When it was used, the contents of the bags were simply dumped into a mixer. A mixing operative could have been exposed to vast quantities of inhalable asbestos dust at any stage of the manufacture of the finished product - when mixing the recipe, bagging it, or actually creating the cement from the asbestos-containing mix.

What Mixing Operatives Should Know

Exposure to asbestos is known to cause mesothelioma and asbestosis, two incurable diseases that are difficult to treat. One reason for this difficulty is that the effects of inhaling asbestos don't appear immediately after exposure. A person who has been exposed to inhalable asbestos may not have any symptoms of disease for several decades.

Asbestosis is a chronic lung condition that develops as a result of exposure to inhalable asbestos fibers. Once inhaled, the fibers become trapped in the lungs, causing chronic inflammation and irritation over time. This eventually leads to the formation of scar tissue that causes pain and breathing difficulty. Asbestosis is a debilitating disease with no cure.

Mesothelioma is a type of asbestos cancer that can develop as a result of relatively small amounts of asbestos exposure, but this disease tends to have a much longer latency period. This means that people exposed to asbestos may not develop symptoms of mesothelioma for three to five decades, and sometimes longer. Mesothelioma is an extremely aggressive type of cancer, and there are no treatments that can improve prognosis beyond a few months.

An estimated 27.5 million workers were exposed to asbestos between the 1940s and the 1980s. Because mesothelioma has such a long latency period, people exposed to asbestos that during this time might still be at risk of developing an asbestos-related disease, even if they don't currently have any symptoms. Mixing operatives who worked in the industry prior to the 1980s are at high risk of asbestos-related disease if they did not take the safety precautions that are now known to be necessary to prevent exposure.

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