Asbestos Fibers

September 7th, 2008 by admin

In order to truly understand the risks and dangers or asbestos, you need to know more about asbestos fibers so that you will know how they affect the body and can lead to serious health problems.

Asbestos is a natural substance, and is classified into two groups–Amphibole and Serpentine. Chrysotile is the most common of the Serpentine group, and this is the type of fiber that forms flat sheets–it can even be woven into cloth. The Amphibole group has five types of asbestos fibers–amosite, tremolite, crocidolite, actinolite, and anthophylite. The most common types of amphibole are amosite, which is brown in color, and crocidolite, which is blue. When you look at these asbestos fibers, many of them look harmless, and even beautiful. So what is it about these fibers that make them so harmful to humans?

When the substance is in its raw state, it is friable, which means that it can be inhaled very easily. The individual fibers are smaller than one strand of human hair, and some of them can not even be seen with the human eye. When the asbestos is used for construction purposes, such as to make ceiling and piping materials flame-retardant, it is not friable anymore–unless the fibers are broken again. When the pipes are cut, broken, or sanded, the fibers start to cause harm again, and the people working in these buildings are at greater risk for developing serious health problems.

Once asbestos fibers have entered the body, they may become larger and start to affect the immune system. The immune system tries to fight off the fiber and get rid of it, using cells called macrophages that eat or absorb foreign chemicals that enter the body. However, the macrophages can not destroy the asbestos fibers, since they are made of crystal rock. The fiber will continue to travel through the lungs, and can cause scar tissue.

Once the lungs become affected, severe breathing problems can develop, and it will be much easier for the body to develop cancer that will attack the protective sac that is around the internal organs. People may not even know that they are at risk for cancer, or that their health is failing due to exposure to asbestos fibers until years after they have stopped working in the area that was contaminated.

This is the reason that many people contact lawyers to help represent their case when they feel they have been exposed, or to handle the medical expenses that come with treating this condition. If you want to learn more about how you can protect your health and the health of your loved ones, visit www.asbestos-mesothelioma.com.