Chris, "Asbestos and Your Health"

Asbestos comes in two forms: Chrysotile and Crocidolite. Chrysotile is a white colored, long strand-like form of asbestos, whereas crocidolite is made up of shorter strands. Crocidolite has been a known carcinogen for quite a while ergo has never really been used in buildings. Chrysotile, however, was not discovered until more recently to be carcinogenic, and had already been used in many buildings as insulation. The question now is whether or not to remove the asbestos from the structures. On one hand it would remove a dangerous substance from a place filled with people. On the other hand it has an extremely high risk of loosening airborne asbestos, which is also very dangerous and hard to avoid.

Since this was from the textbook, all the words were defined. But until I read this I did not know the meaning of ‘synergistically’, which means the combined effects of two substances are greater than each individual substance.

I was hoping this article would give a little more insight as to how asbestos causes mesothelioma, but it spoke more about how it came into place and the issue of how to remove it. I was interested in the different types of asbestos; I did not previously know that there were two types, much less that they were discovered to be carcinogenic at different times. I find it odd that once crocidolite was found to be carcinogenic that research was not put in to find out if Chrysotile was also a risk factor.

Personally I don’t know which side I would choose on whether or not to remove asbestos. Both pro and con have strong arguments. I think it might depend on the building. A residence home you might leave it in because it’s easier to monitor, whereas a larger building would be more difficult to manage and could affect a lot more people. I think in that case the extra work and precaution would be worth it.
Works Cited
Baird C. Chemistry in Your Life. W.H. Freeman and Company. New York. 2006. Pp 545-546