Unknown to most people, asbestos is a natural mineral which is mined like ore or similar substances. It is found in rocks around the globe, including the Canadian-U.S. border. It is also found in place like Africa and Russia. Often, when miners are trying to reach one kind of rock, they get asbestos instead.
Types Of Asbestos
There are a number of different kinds of asbestos. Amphibole asbestos contains small microscopic fibers that are like long, thin needles. Chrysotile asbestos contains tiny curly needles. Chrysotile asbestos is considered less dangerous than amphibole asbestos and is more commonly used nowadays.
What Makes Asbestos Such A Useful Material?
Asbestos really is an amazing material. They're an engineer's dream. Not only do they withstand extremely high heat, they also tolerate acid and electricity. Additionally, asbestos have an extremely long lifespan.
Moreover, asbestos doesn't seem to care what form it’s in. It can be woven into cloth, poured like powder, mixed into cement or formed into shapes such as bricks. It doesn't matter what form it's in. It also works as a natural insulator of electricity and heat.
Asbestos In Different Industries
Insulators use asbestos to protect newly-applied insulation to seal cracks while Welders used asbestos cloth to build box-like structures so the sparks from their torches wouldn’t fly around refineries and chemical plants. They wore asbestos gloves and used asbestos-containing welding rods. Sometimes they even took naps on stacks of asbestos cloth.
Foundry workers adorned themselves with aprons and gloves made from asbestos to protect themselves while pouring hot metal. Technicians in laboratories used asbestos protective clothing when they handled hot glass.
Bricklayers lined the interiors of boilers with asbestos-containing bricks called firebricks and anchored them in place with asbestos-containing mortar. Their helpers swept up the dust with push-brooms in a shower of dust. This was in an enclosed space.
Steel girders in industrial facilities and high-rise buildings were sprayed with liquid fireproofing materials, mixed with asbestos.
However, what many of these workers may not have known, is that inhaling asbestos fibers can lead to serious disease such as mesothelioma cancer.
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