Asbestos: Are more rules in the air?
By SUNNY LOCKWOOD
Once airborne, naturally occurring asbestos fibers can float on air currents for days or weeks.
When the tiny, needle-like fibers are inhaled, they pierce the lungs and surrounding tissue.
The fibers can scar the lungs, making it hard to breathe — a condition called asbestosis. Fibers embedded in lung airways can also cause lung cancer. Asbestos fibers that slice through the lungs and into the chest cavity lining injure mesothelial cells and cause cancerous tumors. Mesothelioma is a fairly rare cancer that can take 25 to 40 years to develop, yet it kills nearly all its victims within a year of diagnosis.
