Asbestos contamination

Asbestos contamination is a huge crisis, demanding attention from numerous countries and individuals. Having many favorable characteristics such as heat resistance, or electricity resistance, the mineral has been called a God-blessed fiber (Strand, 2021). However, I would like to describe this, as a ‘curse to mankind’. Asbestos, as a solid block, does not pose a threat, but once it gets broken and airborne, it may cause fatal diseases such as lung cancer or mesothelioma when breathed in (King, 2021).

Unfortunately, before people acknowledged the dangers of the toxic material, they used asbestos in a variety of ways, mostly in the commercial and industrial sectors. These include fireproof coatings, insulation, hardening plastic, tiles, etc. This means that the infrastructures we have today mostly contain this material (The department of health, 2013).

The mines that the asbestos was produced not only threatened the lives of the human population but harmed the environment as well. The airborne material not only harms the lungs of humans but may kill the animals that breathed it in. To understand this, we need to address how asbestos makes us ill. When the small asbestos fibers are breathed in, the fibers stick to the walls of the lungs. This sticks to the walls so strong, that it does not get off your whole life. This becomes a big problem when this happens repeatedly. The asbestos fibers that are stacked for a long time start to block the pores on the lungs, which causes health disabilities such as coughing, or shortness of breath (Whitmer, 2021). It implies the meaning that that the asbestos dust produced from mining can go to the lungs of the animals near the mines, which may lead to massive death of the ecosystem, or so-called chaos (United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 2019).

Despite the fact that 55 countries had blocked the use of this toxic material, asbestos keeps moving through countries because cheap asbestos is a useful material for developing countries to build with a low budget. They are used in walls of houses and the roofs mixed with cement. This means that the citizens of the country are constantly exposed to asbestos dust, which causes the problem to become severe.

This brings us to the conclusion, that people know that this is near them, but is not aware of what it actually brings them to. It’s said that asbestos mines have been closed since 2002, but the truth is that still many countries use it, even the United States hasn’t fully blocked the material from being mined. I claim that this problem should be well known, and educated so that we could prevent further mistakes, and can stop similar cases from breaking out. The new generation facing these numerous problems should be educated enough, and be able to handle it.

Thank you.