Idaho
Idaho has a long list of industries that employed asbestos use. However these pale in comparison to the exposure that occurs when persons are employed as miners. The panhandle of northern Idaho is the home of a rich supply of asbestos. In a mine there are several persons in a small space who can easily be exposed to large quantities of airborne asbestos, and since the ventilation isn't the best in a mine, these fibers would hang in the air until they were finally inhaled or attached themselves to a miner's clothing. When asbestos covered clothing came home to the unsuspecting family, including the wife who was most likely the person doing the wash at the time, would be exposed to asbestos dust on the miner.
Chemical Plants
Chemical plants are among one of the industrial hard hitters in the use of asbestos. Chemical plants used asbestos heavily to keep their employees and their building safe. The asbestos would insulate very well, and it was a retardant to electrical currents and fire. This versatility is what led to it's popular industrial use. The workers in the chemical plants can become exposed by the fibers coming loose from a worn place in the insulation or a cracked tile or board that was fortified with asbestos. Persons that worked in the plant may also have worn protective clothing, such as coveralls and gloves, that would be another source of exposure as soon as the equipment began to show any wear.
Power Generation Plants
As with chemical Plants you would find the asbestos to be used as an insulator for electrical equipment as well as to keep the building and the employees safe from hot surfaces and potential fires. Steam pipes and wiring would receive asbestos insulation. This miracle product of the time was so good for so many things, and could so easily be applied in so many different forms that it was used extensively. If you were concerned about any form of insulation, asbestos was the answer, and that is exactly how industry responded.
The highest rate of exposure in Idaho would be the persons that were in the construction industry. The industrial use of asbestos does not match the household use of asbestos. We used asbestos to cover our pipes and insulate our homes. We used asbestos tiles in our ceilings and asbestos tiles in our floors. There are still wallboards with some asbestos content in use where the asbestos is mixed with a binder to keep the material from becoming airborne, but in the meantime construction workers have installed countless asbestos products. When the materials were cut, broken, or otherwise disturbed the dust that they inhaled would contain asbestos. When these men conducted demolition on any scale prior to the EPA having taken notice of the risk associated with asbestos they would have been tearing down all of the same materials, creating great clouds of asbestos to be inhaled by them or any person nearby.
Those that have been exposed to asbestos should contact their doctor and make them aware of the situation. Those that have inhaled carcinogenic asbestos can be subject to an asbestos-specific cancer known as mesothelioma, or suffer diminished lung capacity at the hands of asbestosis. These problems can take decades to develop, so you should keep your health monitored closely. There are professionals out there that can help you legally if you or your family should suffer from either exposure-related injury to help you get remedies that can assist in your medical bills, and care for you in your illness.
Last modified: December 28, 2010.
