Mesothelioma is a serious form of cancer that is related to asbestos exposure. Don’t worry, I don’t have mesothelioma and I don’t plan on getting it.
I had no idea what mesothelioma was until I bought a house with asbestos in the basement. My brother John works as a mesothelioma defense lawyer (among other things), and he told me all about the risks of asbestos exposure. Even though it looks tempting, never lick asbestos, unless that is, you want to get mesothelioma. And if you get mesothelioma, I recommend that you seek legal help from a mesothelioma lawyer.
This is the first time I’ve ever seen asbestos and it’s in my basement. When looking in the basement, my inspector pointed it out to me.
Uh Scott, I wouldn’t touch that if I were you.
Why not?
Because that white covering is asbestos.
Oh, that’s bad.
Yeah, asbestos is bad, but only if you rub it on your skin, inhale the little asbestos fibers, or consume it. Still, I don’t want to get mesothelioma so I want the asbestos out of my house as soon as possible. Currently the asbestos is covering the wooden support beam above my furnace. It will protect the beam in case of a fire, and it was installed there for that very reason.
A house jack is pinning the asbestos to the support beam so it will need to be moved. I plan to safely remove the asbestos when I replace the columns in the basement. There are a few more house jacks and old tree trunks loosely holding up my house… but that’s another story.
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March 28th, 2006 at 11:46 am
that’s the dilema with asbestos, tastes like vanilla ice cream
March 29th, 2006 at 7:42 pm
If you leave the asbestos alone, you’ll be fine. It’s when you try to remove it without taking the proper precautions that you release asbestos fibers into the air. And even then you won’t have enough exposure to worry about. I’ll come remove the asbestos if you want.
By the way, you cannot get sick from rubbing asbestos on your skin or from consuming it (or from licking it, although I agree that you should avoid doing that because it’s just gross). And breathing it under normal circumstances won’t harm you either. Asbestos is a naturally occuring mineral and all of us probably have inhaled thousands of asbestos fibers. Just like cigarettes, our lungs are equipped to deal with minimal exposures. But when you have heavy, sustained exposures, the lungs’ defense mechanisms can’t handle it and then you can get lung damage, such as asbestosis, cancer or mesothelioma.
There are only 2,000 to 3,000 cases of mesothelioma diagnosed each year in the United States. It’s an extremely rare form of cancer.