If you breathe in the fibers over long periods of time, you increase your risk for diseases like lung cancer, mesothelioma, and asbestosis. Smokers are even more affected. That’s because cigarette smoke irritates lung passages. This makes it harder for the lungs to remove asbestos fibers.
If you have trouble breathing or shortness of breath and a very low blood oxygen level, your doctor may recommend oxygen therapy. For this treatment, you're given oxygen through nasal prongs or a mask. Oxygen therapy may be done at home or in a hospital or other health facility.
When a person inhales or accidently swallows asbestos fibers, there is no immediate reaction as with toxins that are usually referred to as poisons; in fact, if you were to swallow or inhale asbestos fibers you probably wouldn’t notice. They are invisible to the human eye and light enough to stay afloat in a cloud of dust for a long period. Asbestos poisoning is the result of asbestos fibers becoming lodged in the human body which cannot shed them through natural methods.
When asbestos fibers in the air are inhaled, they can stick to mucus in the throat, trachea (windpipe), or bronchi (large breathing tubes of the lungs) and might be cleared by being coughed up or swallowed. But some fibers reach the ends of the small airways in the lungs or penetrate into the outer lining of the lung and chest wall (known as the pleura). These fibers can irritate the cells in the lung or pleura and eventually cause lung cancer or mesothelioma.
Do-it-yourself home renovation enthusiasts, as well as those who worked in the construction trade, may have been exposed to asbestos while working with popular building and construction products. Many of these products were made with asbestos through the late 1970’s as the projects they were to be used in required that they be heat and fire resistant. They included insulation, roofing material, siding, joint compound, ceiling tiles, flooring and more. Unfortunately when any of these products were cut, sawed filed, or sanded, asbestos fibers were released into the air. In the majority of cases, those working with the products did not use appropriate safety precautions because asbestos companies withheld information about the health hazards of asbestos for many years. Today, as a result, construction workers and do-it-yourselfers are at risk for developing mesothelioma or other asbestos-related diseases.
Fibrosis of the lung can lead to increased resistance to blood flow through the capillary bed, resulting in cor pulmonale. This condition may also occur with less severe fibrotic disease, especially if chronic obstructive lung disease is simultaneously present, as commonly seen in cigarette-smoking asbestos workers. Pulmonary hypertension may occur before decreased respiratory function is clinically detectable.
Generally, being around asbestos-made products isn’t a danger, as long as the asbestos is enclosed. This prevents the fibers from getting into the air.
Because of the long latency period, people exposed to asbestos before 1980s government regulations may only now begin to notice pleural mesothelioma symptoms. The latency period also means that the peak in pleural mesothelioma cases won't occur until decades after the peak in asbestos usage. For this reason, most projections estimate that the U.S. still has not experienced the highest annual rate of mesothelioma cases.
Although the asbestos industry proclaims the "safety" of chrysotile fibers, which are now imbedded in less "friable" and "dusty" products, little is known about the long term effects of current asbestos products because of the long delay to the development of disease. In spite of their potential health risks, the durability and cheapness of these products continue to attract commercial applications. Asbestosis remains a significant clinical problem even after marked reductions in on-the-job exposure to asbestos. Again, this is due to the long period of time between exposure and the onset of disease.
However, the people with the heaviest exposure are those who worked in asbestos industries, such as shipbuilding and insulation. Many of these people recall working in thick clouds of asbestos dust, day after day.
Asbestos was used across all branches of the military for many years. Navy veterans were exposed to high levels of asbestos while serving on ships (aircraft carriers, destroyers, submarines, battleships, warships, etc.) in the naval fleet as well as in naval shipyards across the country. Army veterans were exposed to asbestos in buildings on military installations and while working on military vehicles. Air Force veterans were exposed while working with military aircraft. Marine Corps veterans that spent time at sea aboard Navy ships were exposed to asbestos. All veterans exposed to asbestos have an increased risk of developing mesothelioma.
Asbestos exposure in both children and adults may occur while breathing air in or near buildings (public or private) containing asbestos building materials or near asbestos-related industrial operations. Children breathe differently and have different lung structures than adults. It is not known if these differences may cause a greater amount of asbestos fibers to stay in the lungs of a child when they are breathed in than in the lungs of an adult. Children drink more fluids per kilogram of body weight than adults and can also be exposed through asbestos-contaminated drinking water. Eating asbestos-contaminated soil and dust is another source of exposure for children. Certain children intentionally eat soil, and all young children eat more soil than adults through hand-to-mouth activities. Historically, family members have also been exposed to asbestos that was carried home on the clothing of other family members who worked in asbestos mines or mills. Breathing of asbestos fibers may result in difficulty in breathing, lung cancer, or mesothelioma (another form of cancer associated with asbestos exposure). These diseases usually appear many years following the first exposure to asbestos and are therefore not likely to be seen in children. But since it may take up to 40 or more years for the effects of exposure to be seen, people who have been exposed to asbestos at a young age may be more likely to contract these diseases than those who are first exposed later in life. In the small number of studies that have specifically looked at asbestos exposure in children, there is no indication that younger people might develop asbestos-related diseases more quickly than older people. Developing fetuses and infants are not likely to be exposed to asbestos through the placenta or breast milk of the mother. Results of animal studies do not indicate that exposure to asbestos is likely to result in birth defects.