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What do you think is the modern day equivalent to asbestos in 1960? (lemmy.world)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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[–] 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Nobody is dying horribly from emphysema because they accidentally contacted microplastics two decades ago.

Aren't the vast majority of people suffering cancer from asbestos exposure the people that worked with asbestos for years? From what I understand, you're very unlikely to suffer from a single exposure.

That being said, asbestos is fucking everywhere. Veritasium recently did a video on it, and a lot of the soil around Las Vegas just naturally contains it, and gets kicked up by vehicles, construction, wind, etc.

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  • [–] 5 points 7 months ago

    Aren’t the vast majority of people suffering cancer from asbestos exposure the people that worked with asbestos for years?

    Sorta kinda. It was much easier to get prolonged asbestos exposure than repeated glyphosate exposure. We used it in everything, including carpets and roofs. The asbestos fibers in those roofs are fine, but the glue holding them together isn't. It's been falling on the ground since forever, but it's accelerating more and more.

    Meanwhile, the only people working unsafely with glyphosate are basically a subset of farmers. Now, I've basically NEVER seen a farmer handle chemicals according to the instructions, so within that group unsafe exposure is basically 100%, but it's a much smaller fraction of the population.

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago

    the natural stuff is in clumps that your not able to breathe, and yeah asbestos is natural and almost everywhere there's rocks. it's usually in long fiber like strings. even when it's broken up, it's not particle size and airborne. it's usually bonded together.

    it's that stuff that was industrialized and refined. that stuff that can become airborne and inhaled. One particle that gets absorbed might stay with you forever but it's usually the build up of many exposures that causes the problem.

    so many older houses have it in the attic and siding. it's not going anywhere

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