They’re going to say the same about plastic
they already are
And we keep ramping up production because… Capitalism!
God: “I’ll make a wonder material. Fire proof. Strong. Insulating. Just dig it up from the ground. Common a fuck. Waterproof.”
“Then they can all get cancer the cunts”
“Okay I’m done shit posting for now. Where’s that big tittie blonde gone”
My dad was a contractor and he had a big sheet of it in the garage that was leftover from some job. It looked kind of like a sheet of drywall, but was grey and rougher. I used to take it into the back yard with a little blow torch and and lay on it while I melted metal things. I was probably ten to twelve at the time.
It was a different time.
Treat your taste kindly with KENT, the cigarette with the NEW Micronite filter!
^^Micronite ^^is ^^asbestos.
Oh oh, I’ve got one too. It’s not containing Asbestos but Thorium (or Radium respectively) tho.
“Doramad radioactive toothpaste”
“Creates natural freshness in the mouth!”
“Special biological healing effects by radium rays. A thousand times medically prescribed and recommended.”
“What does Doramad do? Through its radioactivity, it increases the defenses of teeth and gums. The cells are charged with a new vigorous life energy, which inhibits bacteria in their destructive ability. Hence the exquisite prevention and healing effect on gum diseases. Polishes enamel to the softest shiny white. Prevents tartar approach. Good foam, new taste, pleasant, mild and refreshing. Use extensively.”
Quick disclaimer: The last two quotes can be found on Wikipedia but they are not backed up with sources.
Jesus fuck
At least you don’t have to worry about caries anymore 💀
And I thought Alex Jones’ colloidal silver was insane
The irony is that production was only stopped after Hiroshima and Nagasaki as nobody wanted to buy radioactive toothpaste any more. So the US which developed nukes against the Germans actually saved the Germans from radioactive poisoning by dropping said nukes on Japan.
One could say it left a bitter taste in some German’s mouths. ^(I couldn’t resist)
Is this double cancer?
Super cancer actually, it’s an easy mistake to make
It is a fantastically useful material, except for all the mesothelioma.
“If you or a loved one have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, you may be entitled to compensation…”
We are in Australia. The company that mined the stuff was found negligent as they kept selling it for decades after they knew it was deadly dangerous
I also hear that so many times thanks to one of the Brain Blaze (on YouTube) editors
Seriously, except for the horrific issues with the stuff, it would be an essential material for various applications.
Its resistance to fire, heat transfer, etc would do wonders for insulation and construction.
Makes me wonder if it could be treated in some way to make it not-so-inhalable. Though maybe we have better synthetic alternatives by now.
As I’ve understood it, the problem is primarily for the people having to manufacture products using it, and at rest it’s supposed to be inert.
Don’t forget about when it’s time to un-make it.
Tearing down old building or tiles containing asbestos is also a huge issue.
So many people were exposed to asbestos dust in New York when the world trade centre towers were destroyed by terrorists
lol terrorists. I see them as victims in a war this country started. So by proxy, we’re the terrorists. What a stupid fucking word!
Yep. Probably like 40,000 people.
Except that people don’t always recognize it and end up drilling holes in it or sawing through it
This is probably how I’ll die tbh
It’s supposed to be it tends to get brittle and fracture creating airborne shards that you can breath in but your body can’t break down and that continuously damages the cells leading to cancer.
Any time you disturb it theres a problem
TIL, I’m an asbestos.
Doesn’t burn, really hard to wear out, you can just dig it out of the ground, easy to shape and repair.
Except it kills people, and it hurts the whole time they’re dying.
This is how you know the universe hates us.
The universe owes none of us anything. We stick our noses into everything and some things aren’t good for us
This one is only really bad because the asbestos companies kept it secret when they found their product killed those exposed to it.
Mother Gaia does a little trolling
That and lead in paint and gasoline all worked amazingly.
Lead in gasoline was a stop-gap solution. If I remember correctly , it was added because we didn’t have the technology at the time to refine gas sufficiently to get the octane levels necessary to prevent pre-ignition of fuel (which causes rod knock) at a reasonable cost. Tetraethyl lead effectively increased the octane level/resistance to pre-ignition. As a side benefit, the lead slightly lubricated the valves and valve seats so that they lasted for tens of thousands of miles, instead of needing to be reground every few thousand miles.
It was a stupid stop-gap though, esp. since the dangers of lead were well known by then.
You’re mostly correct. It was an additive to raise the octane rating and did lubricate. However, it wasn’t a gas refinement issue that caused the need. An octane boosting additive has been needed ever since, right up to today. Now the octane booster used is ethanol, mostly.
Race cars and many airplanes still use lead. We’re still making people dumber. Just at a lesser scale.
If you want a sad rabbithole, look at the cancer rates around small airports, which are often much closer to where people live.
While it’s no consolation to these current people, they are trying to make the switch to lead-free aviation fuel. It’s partly a regulatory nightmare, and partly a genuine safety challenge; mandating a fuel change in aviation without adequate research and understanding can result in unexpected engine malfunctions.
As long as it doesn’t break down it’s awesome
I had to reinsulate my attic a few years ago and I found about five different types of insulation up there (I have an old house) … I had to do a bunch of research on this stuff and figure out what I had … thankfully I was ok but I found this in my search online
But like, why asbestos?
Why can’t they shovel sand or dirt or something?
Oh my god. Blue asbestos is the worst kind, or best if mesothelioma is your thing. Every single one of the people in that picture died from pulmonary issues.
My grandparents old farm had an asbestos carpet under their current carpet. I’m very very happy I was around to spot that, and for having audited a lot of abatement companies.
It also had asbestos roofing, but at least we weren’t about to rip that up by hand
The first time I learnt about my asbestos I was about 12 and my mum was going off at my dad about it. This was after we just took a load of roofing off an old shed without masks or gloves.
Thinking of it. He also give me fucking tinnitus when I was like 22. Really should have fucking learnt my lesson by then :(
I’m pretty sure we could go back to using it, with more precautions in place, better binders, etc. Hell, it’s still used in many parts of the world, and it occurs naturally all over the fucking place. But, alas, lawyers would have to stop salivating at every mention of the word.
In geoscience, we started using the word asbestoform to describe minerals with fibrous habits so we don’t get lawyers showing up to destroy all of our rock samples and turn every geoscience facility into a superfund site.
I’m pretty sure we could go back to using it, with more precautions in place, better binders, etc. Hell, it’s still used in many parts
Is there a way to keep it inert when the next homeowner starts tearing down drywall and drilling holes in stuff?
Not really, but you mark is clearly everywhere and bond it in fire resistant epoxy.
People will learn when they drill into their wall and hit epoxy that means something.
That helps somewhat, but if the house gets demolished with a bulldozer that’s still a lot of asbestos floating around again. The point is, you don’t know what will happen to it in the future, and it’s just not safe to have semi hazardous material lying around everywhere.
It’s pretty unlikely the homeowner is bulldozing the house themselves. So likely it’s handled by professionals.
Epoxied asbestos is approximately as dangerous as epoxied fibreglass – add some dust suppression and have at it.
What if there’s an earthquake, or a tornado, or a flood?
Entire neighborhoods of carcinogens would be released into the environment.
Unless said hurricane, tornado, or flood grinds the material into a fine powder then you go around the neighbourhood snorting it – then if bound properly, it is just as safe (or dangerous) as fibreglass insulation.
I’m not saying fill everyone’s attics with powdered asbestos or something.
We use dangerous products all the time. For example, mercury in florescent lighting. But we regulate and generally speaking things are quite safe. But for whatever reason, as soon as anyone hears the word asbestos they freak out and no amount of explanations regarding safe handling will suffice.
Well, hurricanes and tornadoes and floods DO grind materials into dust, which can then turn aerosol.
So maybe we just, ya know, don’t use it in construction at all.
Russia and China still use it loads.
As with all research papers published out of China, you take their numbers with a grain of salt. They report approximately 2000 cases per year of mesothelioma, and of those, only 15% are definitively asbestos exposure related. So about 300 per year. Of those cases, over 80% are asbestos industry (improper safety measures for repeated occupational exposure).
Compared to fire related deaths prevented, it’s probably a good trade for China. Probably.
"Asbestos was first synthesized by the master magi Mesothelioma. He was looking for a way to slowly poison the local villages without easy detection, and ended up creating one of the most common robe linings found today.
Mesothelioma is remembered long after his passing, though not fondly. If you, or a loved one, has been harmed by the creations of Dark Lord Mesothelioma, Sending us today…"
Stupid people used asbestos. We made ourselves part plastic!
Asbestos generation laughing at the Romans and their use of lead
Here goes the microplastic generation
The geological record will be atomic fallout, and then microplastics on the next layer.
Makes me daydream of what new horrible thing the next generations are going to poison themselves with
The current one we are poisoning ourselves with is … disinformation and delusion
We’ve also swept psychotropic drugs in the drinking water under the rug…
Oh no, it’s always something no one even thinks about until 30 years later. It’s always a surprise. Something everyone thought was a great thing.
I just hope it’s not cat pictures.
My bet is Hardi board will be the next one. Concrete dust causes silicosis. In industrial construction allowable concrete dust is basically zero. Residential construction people are sawing and grinding this concrete siding all the time.
Eh. You should be cutting that with a wet saw, like any other masonry product. The problem is that a lot of contractors are trying to go fast, since time is money, and they skip wetting stone and masonry products while cutting.
Yeah it’s not as bad as asbestos. I think it will be similar to lead paint. Bad for you, but not downright dangerous.
Hardi board
That’s a good one. I haven’t heard of that before. It even checks off the “fireproof” box
Could someone please explain the joke to me?
To quote Wikipedia:
It was also later discovered to cause lung cancer, mesothelioma and also because of its fibrous structure; it breaks into lots of tiny little microscopic needles when agitated. Those little shards get inhaled and poke tiny holes in your lungs which causes Asbestosis (kind of like Emphysema for smokers).
Sometimes the little shards make it through the lungs into the blood and thence onwards to cause cancer in any part of the body* it comes to rest
*Except the most protected parts: brain and gonads
Asbestos is notoriously cancer causing, dangerous, EPA damning material that many, many homes, farms, buildings, etc. in America (and a few other countries) used heavily because of the properties espoused in the advertisement above.
And many people have suffered premature deaths as a result.
Asbestos was even used in the Wizard of Oz for the snow falling on the cast.
I had Asbestos in my ceiling in a home I purchased and had to pay $12k to remediate it. They wore masks, had negative pressure ventilation suits on, had to get EPA certifications, checks, etc.
It’s brutal stuff.
My mother grew up with her mother using asbestos heat distributors on the stove (between the flame and the pot) and they wore out regularly. Grandma was apparently very annoyed when the product was banned
Mum died in 2021 of a cardiac cancer, caused by asbestos
I remember as a kid we had some kind of puck-shaped asbestos bathroom deodorizer. It was also used in urinals back in the day.
See also: Radium
Next: Carbon fiber filament for 3d printers
3D printers, period. The microplastics they create are insane.
How do printers create microplastics? I’d think they wouldn’t be significantly different than other ways of manufacturing plastic parts. Genuinely curious.
After printing you have to not only trim the extra bits, but you have to sand it down, whereas manufacturers use molds and only have to trim the seams.
Ah so the finishing work. Makes sense.
E: Reading about PLA specifically, it appears to be compostable. Also burning it doesn’t produce nasty byproducts. So perhaps 3D printing with PLA isn’t that bad, of one takes care of the excess.
It’s compostable in the same way that taco bell is mexican food; you have to add a lot of qualifiers before anyone will agree with you.
As far as regular people are concerned, pla isn’t being composted.
Yummy
