Montana has been particularly hard hit by asbestos and the diseases it causes, such as asbestosis and mesothelioma. In the small town of Libby, more than 300 people have died from asbestos related complications, which is astonishingly high for a town of less than 3,000 residents. To honor those in Libby and elsewhere who have felt the direct effects of asbestos exposure, Montana Senator Max Baucus has successfully rallied his colleagues in Washington and passed a resolution designating the first week of April as “Asbestos Awareness Week” here in the United States.
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Throughout the 20th century, asbestos materials were found in a whole host of consumer, commercial and military products. Everything from cigarette filters to shingles contained deadly asbestos fibers. Generations of Americans were put in danger of serious illnesses, such as mesothelioma and asbestosis, despite evidence that showed that the mineral could cause cancer. Asbestos, which is a group of naturally occurring minerals, is composed of thin fibers. When these fibers are inhaled, serious medical problems can result. It can take as long as 50
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Throughout history, asbestos has been used for products ranging from textiles to building materials. It was prized for its ability to reduce fire danger in buildings. But asbestos also leads to deadly diseases such as mesothelioma and asbestosis, and, before we knew all the risks, asbestos was a popular building material throughout the 19th- and 20th centuries. One product, which originated in Vermont, was Rutland Stove Lining, which was used to fix the
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The dangers associated with asbestos exposure have been documented back to ancient times. But despite all we know about asbestos and its ability to cause dangerous diseases such as asbestosis and mesothelioma, it is still used around the world in construction projects. This puts thousands at risk of serious illness or death. Scientists in Italy recently published a study on the effects of asbestos exposure on employees at an asbestos cement plant in the southern Italian city of Naples and the results were quite startling. The scientists focused on 1,247
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“When life depends on it, you use asbestos” is the ironic tag line on a 1981 poster advertisement touting the use of asbestos in the World Trade Center in New York. Long before terrorism represented a global threat, asbestos posed a serious danger to people who lived and worked in structures that used the toxic substance as a building material. The poster puts a high value on asbestos’ ability to reduce fire danger. It reads, “Asbestos contains fire, cannot burn and holds after metal and glass have melted down, giving vital time for people to escape.”
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