Amphibole Asbestos HA fears
Hello, as a background, I've always had HA since a traumatic event of my mom's best friend passing away from a stroke when I was a child.
This most recent one is about possibly being exposed to Amphibole type of asbestos (the deadliest one that stays in your body longer and are finer/sharper) back in late 2021 when I did new insulation install in an attic with Zonolite Vermeculite. I didn't know it at the time but at least I had a full on respirator on, stepped on the trusses to get around in the attic and lay down new pink fiberglass insulation on top of the Vermiculite (house attic was maybe up to 30 feet long and 20 feet wide give or take) but after I was done working in the attic, I took a few or so old bags of the Zonolite Vermeculite and bagged them in a garbage bag but when I was bagging the old Zonolite bags, I had my respirator off already. Zonolite Vermeculite contains tremolite, winchite, and richterite fibers with trace amounts of magnesioriebeckite, edenite, and magnesio-arfvedsonite or otherwise just amphibole asbestos as they came from the asbestos contaminated mine in Libby Montana, US.
My biggest worry is that this is the deadliest form of asbestos and I cannot find reassurance that it's possible to inhale some amphibole asbestos without a guaranteed death sentence of lung cancer, mesothelioma or some asbestos type of disease. I am talking about Amphibole Asbestos only and not the 95% more common serpentine asbestos.
Has anyone accidentally inhaled amphibole asbestos or Zonolite Vermeculite decades ago but turned out fine?
I found studies saying that asbestos exposure doesn't mean you'll get asbestos related illness even for those working with asbestos on a daily basis decades ago and that a lot of people actually inhale background level asbestos but I have NOT found a study saying or specifically mentioning amphibole asbestos.
Thank you for reading.
Re: Amphibole Asbestos HA fears
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Noclip1
My biggest worry is that this is the deadliest form of asbestos and I cannot find reassurance that it's possible to inhale some amphibole asbestos without a guaranteed death sentence of lung cancer, mesothelioma or some asbestos type of disease. I am talking about Amphibole Asbestos only and not the 95% more common serpentine asbestos.
Your risk of developing mesothelioma, or another type of lung cancer from your short exposure is very small. The death rate for workers at Australia's largest crocidolite asbestos mine is less than 5% at up to 50 years followup. Crocidolite, aka blue asbestos, is considered the most deadly of the amphiboles.
Fwiw, I have had considerable occupational exposure to crocidolite and to a lesser extent chrysotile, plus ionizing radiation, carcinogenic vapours and smoked for about 10 years so a lung cancer diagnosis in 2005 wasn't a total surprise. It was successfully (so far) treated by removal of half my left lung. All the initial testing pointed to it being mesothelioma, but it was only the garden variety adenocarcinoma so I can't say which of the risk factors, alone or in combination, did the damage. The trick to survival is to catch it early. Because of my history I began having regular chest x-rays at 2 yearly intervals from when I turned 50 and the second of these picked up the nodule when it was only about 12mm/0.5 inch in diameter.
Re: Amphibole Asbestos HA fears
Hello and thank you for your help. I'm sorry that you were diagnosed with lung cancer but I'm glad to hear that you are surviving years after your diagnosis.
I appreciate the study and data you linked as well as it gives me at least some peace of mind.
Re: Amphibole Asbestos HA fears
Re: Amphibole Asbestos HA fears
Quote:
Originally Posted by
MarleyConner
How is your health now?
My HA or Panic down under's health? I'm hoping that he's doing great and living a happy and healthy life.
My HA is still there with amphibole asbestos but it bounces from one specific amphibole asbestos fear to another. My anxiety right now is making me wish very hard that I could go back in time and not be exposed to asbestos at all. It makes me miss the time when I wasn't even exposed to these amphibole asbestos.
My current fear is I can't find out how much more of a risk I'm at for developing lung cancer or mesothelioma and the amphibole asbestos that I likely inhaled is from Libby Montana and I'm hyper fixated on that type of amphibole asbestos and went down the rabbit hole of how much more carcinogenic elongated amphiboles of 20-70 microns are and also, a few people in my country had asbestosis, lung cancer or mesothelioma just from living in a house with Zonolite Vermiculite in the attic so that instilled more fear in me.
Not to mention that I had talc baby powder when I was in my toddler years so it makes me think that what if it's really game over then?
