The Centre mesothelioma recently received an email from a woman whose family worked with asbestos when she child. After explaining that lung cancer claimed the life of his father, grandfather and grandmother, she asked if we knew of any research on children who have been exposed to asbestos brought home on the clothes of asbestos workers.
Undoubtedly, asbestos fibers brought inadvertently home from the workplace can lead to serious health complications. This is known as secondary exposure to asbestos, and it applies not only to children but also to spouses, siblings and anyone else sharing the residence.
Before answering the question, let's look secondary exposure and how it affects the health of a child.
How high exposure Occur?
In the asbestos-heavy work environments, some activities can expel toxic fibers into the air. This occurs when asbestos products are cut, sawn, sanded, ground, or otherwise disturbed. Apart from the obvious risk of first-hand exposure to asbestos fibers in suspension can be distributed through the ventilation ducts. They also often enter the workers' clothes.
If the workers fail to take appropriate safety measures, such as changing their contaminated clothing before returning from work, for example, the fibers can easily pollute the house. This places children and family members at risk for a number of diseases related to asbestos. Workers may also wear asbestos fibers home with them on their hands, hair, shoes or tools used on site.
According Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), there is no safe level of asbestos exposure . A study conducted jointly by these organizations confirms that significant disease can occur even after short periods or intermittent exposure.
medical research on childhood exposure
A survey of the literature examining the secondary asbestos exposure in children shows researchers still have much to discover. Although a multitude of magazine articles involving dozens of countries describe the impact of indirect exposure to asbestos for children, the answers to many crucial questions are speculative and have yet to be proven.
What we know is that exposure Household asbestos puts children at risk for myriad conditions that doctors once thought only affected workers exposed. In a Congress full 1995 report describing the health effects of the contamination of households, NIOSH reported that the families of asbestos workers were at increased risk of lung cancer, asbestosis, all main types of mesothelioma , cancers of the ways and gastrointestinal ovaries and a number of non-cancerous lung abnormalities.
early studies investigating the dangers of asbestos were confined to occupational exposure in mining of asbestos and production. In one of the first studies on the dangers of indirect exposure, Newhouse and Thompson asserted in 1965 that "there seems little doubt that the risk of mesothelioma can originate from both occupational and domestic exposure to asbestos."
This finding opened the way for many other studies to accurately assess the health risks of high exposure.
many of these studies cite laundering contaminated clothing asbestos as a very plausible path to indirect exposure. in many cases, the wives of asbestos workers regularly washed their husbands dirty work clothes.
And although it may seem like this workers not placed women at risk for the disease, a NIOSH study in 1971 found that the fibers can be transferred to non-contaminated clothes if washed in the same load that clothing contaminated by asbestos. So if the child's clothes are washed with contaminated work clothes of her father, for example, the consequences could be disastrous.
In part 2 of this post, we will cover the latest research on mesothelioma in children and young adults and discuss ways to prevent exposure to asbestos households.
