Thursday, October 16, 2008

Asbestos Cancer: Exposure of Your Child at Your Home

Asbestos Cancer

Issues on asbestos are perhaps one of the most top rated in both the medical communities and the legal communities. As you may have noticed in the past couple of years, there have been a great sprouting of cases against companies who allow the usage of asbestos in any forms. However, do you know that your house could also be a good source of asbestos?

No wonder, there are lots of children, who are definitely not exposed in asbestos in industrial areas where it is frequently used but are still at high risk to asbestos cancer and mesothelioma. Many experts believe that even the homes could be said as culprit to the various diseases directly caused or triggered by this industrial element. But of course, it would take a specific amount of asbestos ingested or inhaled before a person shows symptoms of any asbestos-related diseases.

The mere presence of asbestos in the home is perceived to be a minimal problem and is therefore not considered very hazardous. But once the materials made of or has the material asbestos becomes damaged overtime, that's when real problems occur since a deteriorated asbestos material could possibly release asbestos fibers which are the main perpetrator of diseases relating to asbestos. In this case, the best advice is to leave the material untouched or undisturbed. This would prevent the exposure of your home and children from asbestos fibers.

Asbestos fiber is known to cause two types of cancer- mesothelioma and asbestosis. The former shows symptoms of cancer on the abdominal cavity and lining of the lungs, while the latter has the main symptom of scars in the lungs.

If there are high amounts of asbestos in your home, it is likely that exposure would cause adverse effects on the health of your child. This risk increases over a period of time when a specific degree of exposure is observed. In fact, the probability that your child will develop lung cancer with asbestos is much higher than that of exposure from cigarette smoke. To make matters worse, signs disease development would only occur after 20 to 30 years when the disease is aggravated enough to eliminate the possibilities of healing.

If your home does not contain large doses of asbestos fiber though, even long period of exposure would mean nothing against your health. Nonetheless, it is still better for you to protect your child from the risk of developing cancer.

So if you think your home contains asbestos material, don't make any moves yet. It is best to leave these materials alone or the fibers would spread inside your house. Sawing, scraping and any types of abrasive treatments on materials that contain asbestos would likely promote the spread of the fiber.

If the asbestos material remains untouched, there is no actual risk of your child, or you, of developing cancer.

Check the materials in your house that probably contain asbestos. In any case like this, you need to protect the material from any sort of damage or disturbance. If you have observed any signs of damage on the material containing asbestos, it is best that you limit the access to the particular part of the house where the damage is found because it is likely that there are higher exposure risks in places like this.

If the material is detachable like stove-top pads and board covers, it is best to discard these items and purchase products that make use of alternative materials. If, however, you have discovered that there are parts of your home where damages on the asbestos materials are severe or you need to get these materials off your house due to replacement, it is best to let professionals handle the work and stay as far away from the affected site as possible for as long as the work is ongoing.

In case you are truly sure that your house has asbestos materials used in its construction, it is advisable that you call an expert and have it observed.

There is no known cure yet for asbestos exposure this is why it is very crucial that you protect your child from these fibrous materials at a very early stage through assuring that your home is free of fibrous asbestos.

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