How Serious is Asbestos Exposure?

To date, most research has centered around asbestos workers and their families, with whom it has been proven chronic breathing of asbestos fibers causes permanent scarring of the lungs ("asbestosis"), lung cancer and mesothelioma. At present, however, no definitive research links disease to incidental exposure in the home.

This doesn't necessarily mean there's no risk. Data is difficult to gather in so broad a segment of the population, particularly because health problems may show up 30 to 40 years after exposure.

A growing number of doctors and researchers are concerned about the long-term effects of low-level exposure.

As a rule, asbestos fibers tend to attach themselves permanently to lung tissue; long-term, residual accumulation might catch up with you. The prudent assumption, voiced by Lee Thomas, former Administrator of the EPA , is that there is "no safe exposure" to airborne asbestos.

Asbestos: How Serious is Asbestos Exposure? Avoiding and treating asbestos exposure.

Consumer Product Safety Commission, 800-638-2772, will send you a booklet called Asbestos in the Home and give you up-to-date information on asbestos in products.

Environmental Protection Agency, 202-554-1404, offers names of laboratories who will test and report on a sample suspected to be asbestos. You can also ask for the Asbestos Fact Book.

http://www.epa.gov/opptintr

State and Local Health Departments can be a source of information on how to find asbestos and deal with it.