How Worried Should You Be About Asbestos in Your Home?
Asbestos is a dangerous substance that can appear in your home. In this article, we talk about how worried you should be about asbestos.
Asbestos is a material that used to be used in construction. It is made of flexible fibres that are heat, corrosion, and electricity resistant. Naturally, when asbestos was invented, these characteristics made it a good building material. However, it was later discovered that asbestos was toxic to humans.
While we have long since discontinued using asbestos in construction, it is still found in homes across the UK. As a result, people every year are seeking pleural thickening compensation.
In this article, we’re going to talk about how it can affect your body, and what you should do if you find asbestos in the home.
How Can Asbestos Affect Your Health?
So, how does asbestos affect your health? If you are exposed to high levels of asbestos, some of the fibres that are airborne get lodged in your alveoli. These are tiny parts of your lungs where oxygen in your blood replaces carbon dioxide.
The most common way that asbestos can impact the body is to irritate lung tissue. By creating miniature scars, the lungs become stiffer – this makes it difficult to breathe normally. As asbestos-related conditions progress, more of your lung tissue develops scarring. The result is that your lungs become so stiff from this scarring that they can expand and contract for normal breathing.
How Did Asbestos Come to be in the Home?
As we mentioned before, asbestos was considered to be a miracle material for construction. It had heat resistance, corrosion resistance, and electricity resistance. There were no other building materials that were as cheap to create and use as asbestos that had the same level of resistance.
Consequently, asbestos was employed in construction of many homes in the UK. It was used as insulation, boarding, and even part of cement mixtures for roofing sheets. If you removed all of the walls and ceilings from your property, and just left the timber frame and original structure, you might discover that it was built using asbestos.
What Issues Can Asbestos Cause?
Asbestos can cause a number of diseases and illnesses. Let’s take a look at them here.
Mesothelioma
Mesothelioma is a type of cancer. It attacks the lining of your lungs and your lower digestive tract. By the time it is properly diagnosed, it’s usually too late to do anything about it. It is almost exclusively a result of asbestos exposure.
Asbestos-Related Lung Cancer
On paper, asbestos-related lung cancer looks like normal lung cancer. However, it is specifically caused by exposure to asbestos.
Asbestosis
Asbestosis is scarring of the lungs. After heavy exposure to asbestos over years, the lung tissue can become scarred, which causes breathing issues. People most likely to get this condition would be the workers who built homes.
Pleural Thickening
Pleural thickening is associated with heavy exposure to asbestos. The lining of your lung thickens, and your lungs can be squeezed by pressure, which causes respiratory issues and discomfort.
Finding Asbestos in Your Home
Asbestos can still appear in homes across the UK. Older buildings are more likely to have asbestos.
If you find asbestos in your home, do not attempt to remove it. Instead, try to separate it from the rest of the house without disturbing the fibres. Contact your local authority immediately and they will send a specialist team to remove the asbestos. You should never try and deal with asbestos yourself.
If you think your building has asbestos, do not touch it. If you disrupt the fibres, they will become airborne. This increases your risk of developing an illness from exposure. The best thing you can do is contact your local authority for advice. If it is possible to remove the fibres, they will send a specialist team wearing protective gear to come and do so.
In some cases, it is not possible to remove asbestos without destroying the property. In this case, the asbestos will be safely secured and kept away from your home. What can be done will heavily depend on the circumstances.
Please be advised that this article is for general informational purposes only, and should not be used as a substitute for advice from a trained medical professional. Be sure to consult a medical professional or healthcare provider if you’re seeking medical advice, diagnoses, or treatment. We are not liable for risks or issues associated with using or acting upon the information on this site.
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