How Serious Is Asbestos Exposure?

To date, most research has centered around asbestos workers and their families, with whom it has been proven that chronic breathing of asbestos fibers causes permanent scarring of the lungs (“asbestosis”), lung cancer, or mesothelioma.
At present, however, no definitive research links these diseases to incidental exposure in the home. Data are difficult to gather in so broad a segment of the population, particularly because asbestos-related health problems may show up 30 to 40 years after exposure. This doesn’t necessarily mean there’s no risk.

A growing number of doctors and researchers are concerned about the long-term effects of low-level exposure. As a rule, asbestos fibers tend to attach themselves permanently to lung tissue; long term, residual accumulation might eventually cause disease.

The prudent assumption, according to the EPA, is that there is “no safe exposure” to airborne asbestos.

Dealing With Asbestos

In 1977, the official state rock of California was found to cause asbestos diseases, most commonly malignant mesothelioma (sometimes misspelled mesotheleoma), a rare cancer of the intestinal tract and lungs.

It was discovered that asbestos—a building product hailed throughout most of the 20th century as a “wonder fiber” was killing workers who breathed its microscopic dust in mines, asbestos plants, and shipyards decades after their exposure. When the Environmental Protection Agency discovered this, they began restricting its use.

Asbestos, a natural mineral drawn from serpentine rock, stands up to intense temperatures. Prior to its toxic waste status, its outstanding resistance to heat, combined with its fibrous makeup and low cost, ushered it into the manufacture of thousands of products from toasters to ductwork for more than 60 years.

With the discoveries of asbestos hazards such as mesothelioma and asbestosis, an estimated 25 million American homes gained a new kind of poltergeist: an invisible menace that may or may not be floating in the air.

Though the EPA restricted its use in the 1970s and began a 10-year phase-out of products containing asbestos in 1986, people living in homes and using products built earlier are understandably concerned.

In addition, lending institutions and real estate buyers are balking at properties that contain asbestos hazards such as asbestos siding and ductwork. According to one California-based asbestos abatement service, “It’s becoming a liability issue. If you expose future home buyers to a known hazard or sell a property without full disclosure, you’re setting yourself up for a call from a mesothelioma attorney.”

Do small amounts of asbestos in your home really pose a health threat? How can you determine whether or not your home contains asbestos? And if it does, what should you do about removal?

The good news is that asbestos is relatively easy to identify and—if it presents an immediate hazard—can be dealt with manageably.