The risk for developing an asbestos-related disease is proportional to the number of asbestos fibers entering your body. Even one fiber settling deep in a lung can cause damage, but the damage is so minute it will never be noticed. A larger number of fibers will cause damage in more locations, but still may not cause enough injury to be detectable.
As the number of fibers absorbed by the body increases and the amount of damage grows, disease symptoms can begin to show up. As more fibers are ingested, the damage increases and the symptoms worsen.
The most common and most dangerous method for asbestos to enter the body is breathing asbestos dust. To reach the point when adverse health effects become noticeable requires long-term exposure to low levels of asbestos dust, or shorter-term exposure to higher concentrations of dust. Although swallowing asbestos can also lead to asbestos-related diseases, most measures of exposure are based on counting the number of fibers floating in the air.
Exposure Limits
Shortly after its formation in 1971, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) established a personal exposure limit (PEL) for asbestos in the workplace. The first PEL was based on an average count of 12 fibers per cubic centimeter of air (12 f/cc) over an eight hour period. By the end of 1971, this limit was reduced to 5 f/cc over an eight hour period with a maximum peak exposure not to exceed 10 f/cc.
Today the PEL is as low as 0.1 f/cc average over 8 hours with a peak exposure limit of 1 f/cc in a thirty minute period.
OSHA Regulations
If airborne asbestos in the workplace exceeds the exposure limits, a number of OSHA rules and regulations go into effect. OSHA’s asbestos regulations affect four worker groups:
- Construction workers
- Shipyard workers
- Workers in the brake and clutch industries
- General workplace (all other workers)
Though the precise rules vary, the general intent of OSHA regulations is to:
- Modify materials and work processes to reduce the creation of airborne asbestos fibers
- Enclose work areas and provide ventilation to capture and limit the spread of asbestos dust
- Educate workers on the dangers of asbestos and how to protect themselves
- Provide protective clothing and respirators to workers, as well as decontamination facilities
- Monitor employee health on a regular basis
Compliance
As a practical matter, OSHA regulations are not evenly enforced across all industries. For example, an auto mechanic using compressed air to blow dust off a break drum can send up a cloud of asbestos fibers worn off of the brake lining – very likely exceeding the exposure limits. Yet auto repair shops seldom make any effort to control this type of exposure.
Remodeling contractors can also easily turn a blind eye to asbestos materials being removed from buildings they’re working on. Long-time employees can be endangered when this becomes a “way of business.”
In other industries, compliance may vary depending on a company’s size or profitability. Workers who should be covered by workplace safety standards can be knowingly or unknowingly exposed to high levels of asbestos with increased risk for asbestos-related diseases. One study indicated that auto mechanics as a group have a 30 times greater incidence of mesothelioma than the general population having no asbestos exposure.
Risky Jobs
It’s estimated that 1.3 million workers are involved in occupations with potential exposure to asbestos dust. Some of these occupations are listed below. As a general rule, workers in these occupations prior to the 1990s have a much greater risk for asbestos-related diseases than workers in these trades in the past two decades. Nonetheless, the risk for these occupations is many times higher than the general population. Moreover, symptoms will not generally appear until 10 to 40 years after initial exposure.
Although the risk is higher, the number of workers who will ultimately be diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease is still a small percentage of the total number of workers.
- Aircraft mechanics
- Asbestos abatement workers
- Asbestos mixers
- Auto mechanics
- Boilermakers
- Brake mechanics
- Bricklayers
- Building maintenance workers
- Carpenters
- Cement finishers
- Construction laborers
- Crane operators
- Demolition workers
- Drywall tapers
- Electricians
- Flooring installers
- Foundry workers
- Heavy equipment mechanics
- Insulators
- Lathers
- Longshoremen
- Machinists
- Masonry workers
- Merchant marine seaman
- Millwrights
- Navy yard workers
- Painters
- Paper mill workers
- Pipefitters
- Plant maintenance workers
- Plasterers
- Plumbers
- Railroad workers
- Roofers
- Sailors
- Sheetmetal workers
- Ship builders
- Ship fitters
- Ship scrapers
- Steamfitters
- Steelworkers
- Welders
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