The danger of a shadow
I truly despair for society.
The modern generation is being reared to be terrified of their own shadows. They are being taught to fear anything that even vaguely may remotely cause them harm even if the chances of that harm is insignificant.
Take for example the asbestos scare in Australia.
I remember asbestos as a kid. There were various examples of the stuff around the place where I grew up. Later on as I grew to own my own car for example, I remember changing brake linings on a few occasions. The brake pads were basically steel shoes with slabs of asbestos attached. To clear the asbestos dust out of the brake drum was a simple act of blowing whereupon the dust would blow back in my face. No sweat. I’m still alive.
A few years back we had some guttering replaced here at The Manor. The old guttering was asbestos and had deteriorated somewhat. The bloke doing the job was a little concerned and said that technically we should inform the authorities who would come in their hazmat suits, shut the area down and carefully remove the stuff to be safely disposed. I said fuck that and just left the decaying monstrosities on the roof. It’s only asbestos.
I know there is a danger. I also know the chances of harm only happens if I were working with asbestos for many years and that I may get Asbestosis or I may not. Like is full of little risks that mostly can be ignored.
The danger to Australians is, in practice zero. Kids could play with the stuff for all their childhood years before potentially suffering anything. It’s not like it’s pure asbestos dust, but rather common mulch with just a few flecks of the stuff mixed in, yet they close off entire areas as if the soil was contaminated with Plutonium.
The Australian reaction ranks as pure hysteria over an imagined danger.
What is the world coming to?
No jobsworth looks around and says “All the risks have been identified and procedures put in place, so I am tendering my resignation”.
Is there money to be made?
The civil service need more and more to regulate, more forms, more staff needing supervision and supervised diversity.
The contractors. They will gladly take on the work, but , sucking in of breath through clenched teeth, of course because of regulations the staff need more qualifications, specialised personal protective kit, and of course the waste disposal is up there with Sellafield’s standard. Officially. Wink, wink.
Cynical? Moi? Perish the thought.
They do this in self-defense. Years down the road when little Susie grows a third ear on the back of her neck, and it is discovered that she had once walked through the area the lawyers get involved and then, time to pay up.
Over here there was a time when a public building could not be constructed without asbestos in the ceilings, walls, floors…on and on. Now, it costs more to demolish one than it did to build it.
“Pure hysteria over an imagined danger”
That covers so many things nowadays it’s hard to enumerate.
Like you, I spent early motoring years making asbestos-lined brake-shoes/pads fit unwilling drums/callipers, happily reducing any excess in a cloud of asbestos-dust from the grinder, as well as blowing out the drums with an air-line – I’m still here too.
Until recently, we had an old timer locally who would re-line your own shoes and pads, usually for classic cars – if you told him they were ‘for export’, he’d happily use asbestos linings, thus helping your drums and discs to last longer. You’d be amazed how much ‘export’ work he did. . . .
Back in the last century I was given a summer job in an RAF maintenance unit, loading wagons to be shipped out to stations at home and abroad. Wine glasses for the officers mess in Aden was one that stuck in my mind. Anyhoo a few times I would be required to accompany a driver of a Scammell Scarab truck to an asbestos factory in the next town to collect a bunch of tarpaulins to cover the open railway wagons.
They were always in a heap, full of white powder which we had to shake off as best we could before folding them up and stacking them on the flatbed. Then I’d ride on top of the pile back to the M.U.
Am I entitled to any compensation? I’d like it asap as I’m 76 next July.
“Kids could play with the stuff for all their childhood years before potentially suffering anything.”
They’re only kids. And you know how easy it is to make more kids. 🙂
“A few tears back we had some guttering replaced here at The Manor.”
Freudian slip?
Pedant! My proof reader has been fired [again]. By the way, you missed another error, now corrected. 😀
So maybe I shouldn’t have sawn through the asbestos roofing over our coal shed after the gale of 1990?
Sod it, I could have claimed compensation from myself and made a fortune…
Scrobs, I hope your 1990 exploits do you no harm, but a little cautionary tale is required here.
A friend of mine bought an old bungalow many years ago. It was a mess, an needed a lot of work to make it habitable. The roof ‘slates’ are made of asbestos and quite a few were damaged, but fortunately there was a small pile of them at the bottom of the garden, so he used those to make the roof sound (as you do when you are young and relatively broke). This included cutting quite a number to fit edges and corners.
His breathing has been increasingly poor for some years, and eventually someone asked about his exposure to asbestos. His lungs have been effected by the fibres, and the diagnosis had been made. This restricts his life in many ways and the precautions he has to take against lung infections are severe. Even simple colds lay him out and involve doctor intervention and oxygen. Long term? It doesn’t look good for him.
Don’t mess with this stuff. I hope luck is on your side Scrobs, and on mine, since I worked in a factory with an asbestos roof for many years and the dust in there was appalling. Seeing my friend, I’m paranoid about the stuff!
Thank you for your concern, Cas – I guess that after thirty-four years, the two minutes it took to shear off the broken asbestos piece – in the wind, doesn’t seem to have effected my breathing, in fact it has improved muchly since we acquired our new dog, who demands exercise each day and over the two years she has been with us, I can do more now that I did ten years ago!
When my dad had our new house built in 1955, the gutter soffites were all made from asbestos, so were within a few feet of each bedroom window! Nobody suffered!
Think of all those farm buildings which relied on asbestos sheeting for the roofs and cladding, and then don’t get too concerned any more!
Like many of our generation, both my friend and I are petrol heads, he even raced cars for many years and did all his own maintenance, so the exact source of the asbestos that did the damage is a presumption. Still the disease is real and it is a horrible thing to watch let alone go through.
Good luck,
Cas