Talk:Asbestos

Mineral fibers

There are currently some 80, plus or minus, known natural occurring mineral fibers. This is probably an exhaustive number with the likelihood of increasing that number by much being unlikely. Unless sub categories of these 80 some fiber types are established. In addition chemical mineral make up allows for fibers such as Tremolite to be considered either as fibrous or non fibrous. Also the Tremolite Actinolite solid state solution, is made up of five fiber types, not two, each differing by one atom. Winchite differs from this solid state solution by one half of one atom. Complicating factors arise in that many of these fibers take on differing aspects when found as weathered fibers or found as non weathered fibers. In my mind this weathered aspect having introduced the completely useless term of "friable" into the lexicon of "asbestos". The selection of 6 mineral fibers to be known and regulated as "asbestos" certainly had something to do with the commonality of these fibers, but today can be thought of as a completely arbitrary decision. Each of these fiber types have different chemical properties, different health consequences, different behaviors (for example fibrous Tremolite remains airborne for far less time than does Chrysotile). The most dangerous of these 80 fiber types for human mesothelioma is a fiber known as Erionite, which remains unregulated notably in the United States and generally around the world. Erionite with a mesothelioma rate in excess of 50% of a given population, is by far one of the most deadly chemical structures our natural world manufactures. The word "asbestiform" if used to delineate between fibrous and non fibrous identical chemical structures, seems the only appropriate use of that term to me. Better staying with the terms "fibrous" or "non fibrous". The word "asbestiform" introduces a near mystical aspect into the study of "asbestos", which as seen from the natural occuring complexity presented above, is not needed. TTrent —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.239.105.101 (talk • contribs) 03:19, 5 June 2010

asbestos

How long has it been since asbestos has had to be removed?

Asbestos was made illegal in the UK at the turn of the millennium, so it has not been used since. The material was used widely throughout the 20th century, all the way through to the 1970s - a time when many UK homes were built. Reference https://www.asbestos-sampling.com/pages/asbestos-artex

Graphics etc

This article needs some graphics to show the chemistry of asbestos variants and how they relate to each other. This would make the article look better. Expansion in the chemistry would also be helpful My IQ >> 160 (talk) 18:39, 8 July 2024 (UTC)

Feel free to add some. Andy Dingley (talk) 18:58, 8 July 2024 (UTC)

Asbestos and the USA

On the page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbestos I note that the USA does not appear in the main table alongside countries such as the United Kingdom. USA does appear in the next table.

On the page https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/18/health/epa-bans-last-form-of-asbestos-used-in-united-states/index.html

I read that "The EPA has banned chrysotile asbestos, the only form of asbestos currently being used or imported to the United States.".

I think that an essential table in the Wikipedia article on Asbestos needs to be corrected. Me? I would probably end up making a mess of the table(s) structure! Sincerely

Christopher Greaves 96.30.182.81 (talk) 17:57, 15 August 2024 (UTC)

I've made the changes. The final rule was noted a while ago but the table and the tense of previous paragraph was never changed. Reconrabbit 14:05, 16 August 2024 (UTC)

Thank You. 96.30.182.81 (talk) 08:57, 20 August 2024 (UTC)