“Clouds of dust were falling on us at every blow of the truncheon, but at that time we knew nothing about asbestos,” recalled Jesús Ropero Calcerrada, a 73-year-old man who was tasked with scraping asbestos from railway carriages during his working life in Beasáin, in the Basque country in Spain. He and others were not offered any protection from … [Read more...]
They inhaled asbestos for decades on the job. Now, workers break their silence
Henry Saenz remembers when he first learned what even the tiniest bit of asbestos could do to his body. He was working at a chemical plant where employees used [ asbestos for chlorine production ], and his coworkers warned him about what could happen each time he took a breath: Tiny fibers, invisible to the eye, could enter his nose and mouth and … [Read more...]
The silent malignant mesothelioma epidemic: a call to action
Malignant mesothelioma, recognised as a new disease in the 1950s, is almost exclusively caused by asbestos exposure and usually diagnosed decades after first exposure. The disease was initially restricted to asbestos workers, but diagnoses after non-occupational [ asbestos exposure ] continue to surge. Despite the acknowledgment by WHO and the … [Read more...]
EPA rule would finally ban asbestos, carcinogen still in use
The Environmental Protection Agency [(EPA)] on Tuesday proposed a rule to finally ban asbestos, a carcinogen that is still used in some chlorine bleach, brake pads and other products and kills thousands of Americans every year. The proposal marks a major expansion of [ Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ] regulation under a landmark 2016 law … [Read more...]