Hello Just Joined

[Bushbaby]

Welcome Tim,
Good luck with the DAC90.

Rob

[tiv48]

welcome from me Tim
Rob T

[Retired]

Hi,

A warm welcome to a great forum from me too Tim. You can be naughty here by going "off topic" which is just as well or I would be history by now. Enjoy.

Kind regards, Col.

[Aerodyne]

Welcome from me, Tim. One point: the DAC90 - as opposed to the later 90A - has a dropper enclosed by a box lined with asbestos. Please take care and avoid any dust. The lining can be replaced with safe fire-resistant material but if you do so, thoroughly damp the asbestos and use a quality face mask. Col (above thread) will know why I've added this note of caution.
You really can't be too careful with Asbestos.
Tony

[Retired]

Hi,

Very good point Tony about avoiding asbestos as inhaling only a small amount of asbestos dust can turn into a killer in later years like a waiting time bomb just needing a trigger?

When I was much much younger it was common in those days to smash asbestos garages up with a big hammer totally unaware of the dangers and carting the lumps off to the tip. Fortunately so far it hasn't harmed me and I've also worked underground and even worked in a rather nasty chemical plant; strange though how some people suffer only very minor exposure to certain things to be badly affected in later years when it becomes lethal without any warning signs. I've also blown out lots of brake dust from brake drums of old cars which might have included asbestos; I can still taste the stuff as I can the nitro benzine plant I used to work in. Some things are never forgotten?

Tomorrow is another day full of joy and hope; I'm having a short trip out to inspect a lathe with view to possibly buying; I love plenty of toys and I'll not be moaning for a couple of hours in the morning?

Kind regards, Col.

[AlanBeckett]

I'm not panicking.

http://www.asbestoswatchdog.co.uk/home

Alan

[Aerodyne]

I'm pleased you are not panicking, Alan. However, that doesn't change the facts - despite the hubris evident on the website you pointed to - that Asbestos is not a material to be treated carelessly. Events within my family circle have made me only too well aware of how dangerous it can be, which is why I suggest caution when dealing with the stuff.
http://www.easthants.gov.uk/ehdc/healths...s/Asbestos
Tony

[Yorkie]

The problem is the lack of of differentiation between chrysotile (white asbestos), which the amino acid in the lungs will dissolve in a matter of days, and the more dangerous blue and brown asbestos, which takes far longer to dissolve, and in which the fibres are much more brittle and sharp. We can't avoid breathing in asbestos fibres - we breath in literally millions - were enveloped in the stuff - it occurs naturally all over the world. I don't think a sensible debate is possible due to vested commercial interests on both sides of the fence, especially those who promote 'safer alternatives'. The cellulose fibres in wood dust take longer to dissolve in the lungs than do chrysotile fibres.

I'm not trying to be dismissive about what is an emotive subject. The panic over chrysotile asbestos cement as used for decades in rainwater goods, garden sheds, garages and so forth, is in my view, OTT. I've got a vested interest in this topic because for the first ten years of my life I worked almost daily with asbestos cement products - sawing and filing sheet and pipe, and carried asbestos string in the top pocket of my bib and brace overalls to seal flue pipe joints with asbestos string and cement. Having looked into this over the years, I'm more reassured than worried, and the thought of it doesn't keep me awake at night. Asbestos has featured extensively in toasters, ironing boards and other domestic products. (I've still got the woven asbestos heat shield cloth we were issued with the to put behind copper pipe joints when soldering them with a blow-lamp, so as to prevent damage to decor).

What would worry me, is the blue asbestos used for insulating heating pipes and large commercial and industrial boilers, for which the nickname was 'monkey muck'. Heating aneginners used to use it by the sackful, mixing it with water and daubing it thickly on heating pipes. As I recall, heating systems and boilers in many factories, schools and hospitals were still bieing insulated with 'monkey muck' into the late 1960s and beyond.

Sensible precautions should be taken to prevent the inhalation of any dust - for example, when cutting ceramic tiles on a tile saw, sanding woodwork, MDF and so forth. Few people bother with proper P2 respirators - if they do anything they tend to use variants of those daft which paper jobbies that look like bra cups. They only have one purpose in life - to kid ones loved ones into believing that we're taking sensible precautions.

Many substances can be dangerous if not used as directed - petrol for example, but Ironically, there is one product that cannot be used safely in any circumstance, which in the UK kills some 100,000 people a year, some of whom don't even use it, yet it is widely available and on sale legally. I refer of course to tobacco. Asbestos is a naturally occurring substance which can't be eliminated. Tobacco on the other hand, (in its hazardous processed form ready for use) can be eliminated. From a public health perspective, seems to me that the balance is a bit out of kilter. Imagine the fuss if 100,000 died each year from asbestosis as opposed to smoking.

Nothing will change.

[Aerodyne]

"epidemiologists have published peer reviewed scientific papers establishing that chrysotile is the main cause of pleural mesothelioma."
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysotile
You may well be right, David and Alan's laudable lack of panic is probably sensible. However for my part I''ll steer clear of the stuff. For the record, my father died from lung cancer, undoubtedly caused by heavy smoking. My brother died this month from pleural mesothelioma. What any reader of this thread makes of it is entirely their business. I've said all I have to say on the subject.
Tony