Due to the universal usage of asbestos by the building industry throughout much of the twentieth century, the risk of asbestos exposure continues to be a significant threat decades later. For this reason, asbestos removal, also called asbestos abatement, is just as important today as it was thirty years ago. It’s also imperative to get an asbestos lawyer if you’ve been exposed.
Asbestos lawyers help victims get compensation to pay for expensive medical treatment and to secure the future of their families. Whenever damage to asbestos-containing products occur, through normal decay of existing building materials, building renovations, or other causes, the danger of exposure to asbestos becomes a real possibility.
Asbestos is not a danger until its microscopic fibers become airborne, but once an asbestos-containing product has released asbestos fibers into the environment, they can be breathed into the lungs, bringing about many serious health issues. Learning to recognize asbestos symptoms and how to avoid exposure are two important items. What is asbestos and why was it such a popular component in thousands of industrial and building products?
The inherent structure of the fibrous mineral asbestos gives it a great number of remarkable qualities including heat resistance, exceptional strength, insolubility, and many others. Due to these beneficial qualities, asbestos became a popular ingredient in all types of products and applications. However, because it is odorless and invisible to the naked eye, it can be very dangerous.
This is why it’s important to perform asbestos testing whenever it is suspected that it may be present. When an asbestos test verifies the existence of asbestos, the potentially hazardous materials are normally sealed or removed.
Asbestos removal is not always necessary, and can become expensive in some cases, but asbestos removal is the only way to eliminate the threat of asbestos exposure permanently. There are two kinds of asbestos – friable asbestos and non-friable asbestos.
Friable means that the asbestos-containing product can easily be crumbled by squeezing it in the hand or between the fingers. If an asbestos product is friable, it can easily release hazardous fibers into the air, leading to various types of asbestos cancer such as mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis, and many other serious and potentially deadly diseases.
Friable materials can sometimes be sealed or encapsulated to prevent the release of asbestos particles, but it is usually best to perform complete asbestos removal.
