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What is asbestos? Asbestos is a heat resistant serpentine silicate mineral that can be woven, or sprayed, and used as a binder or an insulator. there are six major minerals that are considered any asbestos family, including Chrysotile, Amosite, and Crocidolite. Chrysotile is the one most commonly found in residential construction in the Portland and Salem Oregon areas. These minerals all are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each of which can be made airborne by abrasion and other processes. It maintains its fibrous shape even when broken into microscopic pieces. It is invisible to the human eye, easy to inhale and the lungs are not able to expel it back out. The fact that it gets stuck and acts as an irritant is why it is carcinogenic.

What does asbestos look like? Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral composed of thin fibers. It is heat resistant and maintains its needle-like shape even when it’s broken into extremely small pieces. The term asbestos is used to refer to six separate naturally-occurring silicate minerals. It is found naturally in rocks and soil. Somewhere between 8% and 12% of the Earth’s crust is asbestos rock. It is very useful as a binder and an insulator so it has been used widely in construction.

What problems does asbestos cause? Asbestos causes several types of respiratory disease including mesothelioma and lung cancer. This risk increases greatly for smokers. Because it breaks down to such a fine size, it’s able to be inhaled easily and then the inhaled particles get stuck in the lungs, causing scar tissue to form. This makes it a carcinogen, which means “cancer-causing after exposure”. Asbestos exposure is the only cause of mesothelioma, and greatly increases the risk of lung cancer, and less frequently other types of cancer including gastrointestinal, colorectal, kidney, throat, gallbladder, and esophageal. An additional disease that asbestos can cause is asbestosis. It is a progressive disease caused by the scarring of the lung tissue. There is no way to reverse this damage. While asbestos itself is just a mineral, because of its size and the ease of inhalation, it is very dangerous to human health.