Ricasso,
I am very sorry to hear your sad news. From past experience I have some understanding of what you are going through, so I would like to reiterate your warning to others about the dangers by posting the following:-
The railways used large amounts of asbestos, and although the old BR was one of the more enlightened employers when it came to monitoring/removal etc., there was and still is an awful lot of the stuff about in unknown places. I worked for BR Research for 20 odd years and one of my old workmates eventually became head of the Eastern Region asbestos monitoring unit - a job that he carried out unflinchingly until his death. He had a passion for his job that at the time was somewhat baffling: always lecturing anybody he saw on the dangers inherent in the job, sometimes in what appeared to be a very over bearing manner when people seemed not to take his comments seriously. This was in the early 70's and it appeared to him that he was fighting an uphill battle to educate people - the thought that one tiny breath could be a death sentence is something, that even today some people find difficult to comprehend.
On his death in the late 80's from Mesothelioma, the horrible truth that he had carried with him since he became knowledgeable in the dangers of asbestos became apparent to us all. He left all his old workmates a letter explaining that, as a 16 year old post boy at the Doncaster Plant Works, he and the other youngsters used to spend many lunch breaks having 'snowball fights' in the Work's main asbestos store. Hence his desire to educate people.
Sadly the story has an even darker ending. Eighteen months after his death his dear wife (they met whilst he was on his mail collecting duties and she was a 16 year old trainee typist working in the Plant typing pool) was also diagnosed with Mesothelioma. To me the saddest part of this very sad event, is the fact that my friend's widow died before she received any of her husband's industrial injury compensation. Some of that money would have made her last 18 months so different. The Coroner's findings indicated that contamination from her future husband's work clothes, when she came into contact with him during the day, could have been the original source of the asbestos dust.
Thankfully due to now expert solicitors with adequate funding, compensation claims for asbestos related illnesses are dealt with far more quickly and sensitively, but this is a poor substitute for life.
In the last few years there have been an increasing number of family members diagnosed with Mesothelioma, where contamination can only have come from their spouses working clothes - there are at least two cases in Armley , Leeds. As has already been stated by Krela, as one walks through a contaminated building our clothing is picking up all types of fibre and dust. This is just waiting to be released in your car, by your kids as they brush past you or your wife as she shakes out the dirty washing prior to loading the machine!
So you're young and single and it won't happen to you, or I'm being over dramatic. Well all I know is that in most of the old buildings beloved by members of this Forum, the asbestos is mainly exposed, in a very friable state and vandalism has resulted in it being spread all over the place. By all means wear a mask, but it will not protect you from the fibres that are released into the interior of your car as you chuck it onto the dash board and disturb your clothes as you drive home - with the kids in the back.
I have spent all my working life in industries that when I started work in 1961, used tons of asbestos products and chemicals that are now banned from commercial use. Where the exchange of information across industries was so slow that warning signs were missed or ignored and workers needlessly suffered. Modern technology has vastly improved our understanding and dissemination of facts about dangerous chemicals and substances.
Unfortunately there will be many more cases like Ricasso's before the asbestos episode ends. Just make sure that your dear ones don't become part of the statistics due to your foolhardiness. A few blurry photographs is poor reward for the death of a loved one thirty odd years down the line.
