Asbestos Products

Insulation Duct

Asbestos was very widely used in the twentieth century for a large variety of industrial purposes. Asbestos is a naturally-occurring substance with a number of physical properties that make it ideal for such purposes - it is very strong, highly fire-resistant, and is also an excellent insulator. Asbestos was heavily used in many varieties of insulation, including in insulation ducts that were typically run above ceilings or below floors. Most types of asbestos insulation contained between 10% and 20% asbestos.

Asbestos saw heavy industrial use for several decades, until the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned the use of asbestos in most construction materials in 1977. The use of asbestos became much more tightly controlled as this time due to the known hazards of exposure to asbestos via inhalation and other methods of ingestion. Repeated exposure to asbestos is known to cause lung cancer as well as other serious diseases such as asbestosis and mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma is a rare but very lethal type of cancer that affects the lining of the lungs when asbestos exposure occurs via inhalation. Mesothelioma has a very long latency period, and typically the first symptoms of the disease do not develop until at least two or more decades after exposure to asbestos. Mesothelioma is not curable, and current treatments are largely unable to slow the spread of the disease. Of the two thousand Americans diagnosed with mesothelioma each year, less than half will survive more than two years post-diagnosis.

It is important to understand that insulation ducts and other asbestos-containing construction materials are not always hazardous. If such materials are present in your home or the building in which you work, this is not always a cause for alarm. Asbestos is dangerous only when fibers are airborne, and this does not usually occur when asbestos-containing materials are intact and in good condition. However, any disturbances to such materials can release asbestos fibers into the air, where they may be inhaled. If this is something that concerns you, it is best to seek professional advice on removing the asbestos materials from your home.

The highest risk of asbestos inhalation is for people who work in industries where asbestos is used in manufacturing or construction. When asbestos is used for industrial purposes there is a very high risk of airborne fibers being present in large amounts in the work environment. Throughout a large part of the twentieth century, many thousands of workers were exposed to asbestos - largely unnecessarily. Asbestos was known to be dangerous as early as the 1930s, and yet many companies did not provide their workers with safety equipment to protect them from exposure.

If you have developed mesothelioma then asbestos exposure has most definitely occurred at some point in the past - most likely twenty or more years ago. It is also highly likely that asbestos exposure occurred as a result of negligence on the part of the company you worked for. If you're in this situation, consider contacting a mesothelioma lawyer to find out how you can obtain compensation for having been repeatedly exposed to asbestos. A mesothelioma lawyer can provide you with considerable assistance in determining exactly how and when you were exposed to asbestos, and in finding out who was responsible for the exposure. This information is instrumental in beginning legal proceedings for a lawsuit or settlement that will allow you to obtain financial compensation for loss of quality of life, lost earnings, and for the suffering that mesothelioma causes.

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