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Information about Asbestos

Asbestos(Greek a-,"not"; sbestos, "extinguishable") is a group of fibrous
metamorphic minerals. The fibres are typically mixed with cement or woven
into mats. It is used in buildings for its flame-retardant and insulating
properties, its tensile strength, flexibility, and its resistance to
chemicals, but is now known to be carcinogenic and is banned in many
countries.

Types of asbestos

   * Chrysotile, or white asbestos, is obtained from Canadian serpentine
     rocks. It is less friable, and therefore less likely to be inhaled,
     than the other types and is the type most often used industrially.
   * Amosite, or brown asbestos, is an amphibole from Africa.
   * Crocidolite, or blue asbestos, is an amphibole from Africa and
     Australia. It is the fibrous form of riebeckite.

Notes: Serpentine rocks are those with with curled fibres. Amphiboles have
straight, needle-like fibres.

The amphiboles, in their fibrous form, are friable and therefore the most
carcinogenic, although they also exist in safer non-fibrous forms.

Other asbestos minerals, such as tremolite, actinolite and anthophyllite are
not used industrially but occur in traces.

Asbestosis

The fine particles released from asbestos fibres are easily inhaled, and can
cause a number of respiratory complaints generally known as asbestosis. This
term includes cancers of the throat, lungs and abdomen.

In the United States, asbestos was one of the first hazardous air pollutants
regulated under Section 112 of the Clean Air Act of 1970.

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