This autumn the news came out of blasting grime contaminated with asbestos. The result was urgent consultation on companies. Projects were shut down. The SZW Inspectorate came into action. Caring for employees.
The final word has not yet been said about the blasting affair. Much will depend on the results of TNO's research into the actual exposure of grit workers. The results of this study are expected in the spring. But once again, the impact became clear when news came out of released asbestos.
The IAS was also approached. People called or emailed because they were worried about their health. These were employees who had worked with grit. But someone also called whose car was parked a few months before the grit company, he was afraid that now asbestos was circulating in the car's ventilation system.
The state of mind of these people is worrisome. People sleep badly. Sometimes people have a tight feeling on the chest. While no illness has yet been revealed, one is called an asbestos victim. Because of the impact that the fear has on those involved, that is also justified.
Little systematic research has been done into how many people feel this fear. And what consequences does the fear have for a person's state of mind?
The saying goes 'fear is a bad counselor'. According to the tenor of this proverb, people should not be guided by emotions. Emotions must be fought by facts. Let's list the facts about asbestos diseases.
The fact is that it takes a long time before asbestos fibers develop into malignant tumor cells. The period between the exposure and the origin of the disease is called latency time. The latency period for asbestos diseases is on average thirty to fifty years. It is out of the question that someone may develop an asbestos disease sooner than ten years after exposure. This science often reassures people. That clinging feeling on the chest can therefore not be possible because one has worked with infected blasting grit a month earlier.
The facts also show that most people exposed to asbestos do not get a disease in the long term. One proposition is that one asbestos fiber can be fatal. This statement is correct. There is no minimum limit, which can safely be used with asbestos. This does not mean, however, that in all cases one asbestos fiber leads to asbestos disease. In fact, the higher the exposure, the greater the chance of getting an asbestos disease. But here, too, there are reassuring facts. The majority of the employees who worked with asbestos in the sixties and seventies of the last century and who had been exposed to them for a very long time had no asbestos disease.
A question from people who have been exposed is what one can do to prevent a disease from revealing itself. The most important advice is to stop smoking. Because smoking and asbestos together give a higher chance of developing lung cancer. For all sorts of known reasons, it is important to stop smoking. But if one is worried about exposure to asbestos, that is another reason for not lighting a cigarette.
Furthermore, there is actually not much to do to prevent one from getting an asbestos disease after exposure. People ask if there is no form of screening for asbestos diseases. Screening after asbestos exposure is not recommended by medical professionals. An important reason is that the screening, as it is regularly repeated, by the radiation itself poses a risk of health damage. But, moreover, early detection by screening does not currently offer more chance of survival than if the disease symptoms show that an asbestos disease is present.
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