What are the differences?
May 24, 2010 in
Mesothelioma FAQs
I was reading about asbestos exposure in comparison to second hand smoke exposure. If your house siding/roofing is made out of asbestos, is that similar to being exposed to second hand smoke every day and just as deadly? Our house isn’t really deteriorating, but it is 50+ years old and they said weather can release asbestos such as heavy rain and snow. What is more dangerous? Also, is walking past smokers outside just as carcinogenic as sitting in a room with someone smoking?
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3 comments
tgit23 on May 24, 2010 at 6:52 pm
Usually I don’t like responding to someone Else’s post, but this was just too tempting. Vixen posted the link. Passive smoking, dangerous? – http://www.bupa.co.uk/health_information/html/health_news/270503smoke.html. I really enjoyed this link. So the anti-smoking campaigns are trying to discredit the BMJ case study by saying that "non-smokers married to smokers are LESS exposed to second hand smoke than non-smokers married to non-smokers". lol… Love it!
Two other comments were great in this article. "tobacco companies are using the findings to argue against a ban on public smoking". Huh, where’s my paycheck! I’m against smoking bans and haven’t got my paycheck from the tobacco company yet. Someone obviously believes anyone against taking away the right to smoke works for the tobacco industry.
The best one of all was, "Despite this study that seems to show that passive smoking isn’t harmful, experts are not convinced." So, set aside the BMJ scientific case study, which was the largest study ever done on second hand smoke, lets just go with what’s politically correct. No mention on who these "experts" are that have the power to over-ride years and years of scientific study.
Vixen on May 24, 2010 at 6:52 pm
I’ll answer the last question first, its easier. 1 breath of second hand smoke=1 breath of second hand smoke. However in a room theres less ventlation so your more likely to breath in more smoke than if you were outside, and the concentration of smoke in the room would be higher (so you’d be breathing in 60% smoke inside and 30% outside). Therefore, its less dangerous outside, but its still second hand smoke.
When it comes down to it asbestos and cigerate smoke do the same thing – damage the cells in your lungs (which happens normally), which causes them to "mutate" (change ever so slightly to fit the situtation) to fix themselves. However, it damages them more often, meaning more "mutations", which means more likely that something can go wrong – normally cancer (which is why some people get cancer without ever smoking, its a natural thing to happen, its just more likely if your lungs are damged more often).
However, what I think you really want to know is is your house going to kill you just as bad as if you lived with a smoker. Well, a smoker a light up as many cig’s as he/she wants, whereas theres only so much asbestos in your roof – once its gone its gone, so you won’t be exposed everyday, nor will one breath (or even a thousand breaths) kill you. It gets you by long term, concentrated, exposer – i.e. you have to smoke 2 packs a day for 20 years, or work with asbestos, with no protection, for 20 years. I’ve lived with a heavy smoker before, and my school had asbestos in that was leaking (it had to be knocked down in the end), and I’m fine.
However, if you are still worried, just try to keep your room (and house) as well vented as possible – don’t let it get too stuffy and open windows more. If your really concerned then I think you have a right to find out if the asbestos is active or not (as in the government will pay)? But you’d have to look into it
creed on May 24, 2010 at 6:52 pm
please, seriously;; they also had all this controversy about eggs, & olio margarine better than butter, & on & on, & coffe, & sacharrin;; if you seriously had some sense about you, you can figure out that this is a hype;; it is not proven that second hand smoke causes anything, & there are FAR more many ‘materials’ out there that can harm you that ‘society’ has deemed politcally correct NOT to talk about because there would be mass hysteria;; wanna think about that;; seriously..in about another couple decades when all cigarette smoke is gone, there will still be cancer, there will still be lung dysfunctions, there will still be hysteria over little, ‘sick’ habits people have that society wants to rid of;; don’t drive yourself crazy on this one, hon..something out there is gonna get to you…second hand smoke..I just don’t beleive so…you can get your house checked & repaired in many ways if you are worried & feel that abestos is gonna harm you;; you can clean items that are layered in second hand smoke…& there are far many more particles in a home that can harm you than second hand smoke…ya really gotta start learning what you CAN control & what you can’t..ya can’t control a person walking down the street, but ya might be able to control how much ya drive your fumigation material like your car…good luck…but truly, seriously???