Any factory, whether related to big industrial sites like a shipyard, a power plant, paper or pulp mills, oil refineries, aluminum or steel or chemical plants, or related to small scale industries, has asbestos products within its area. In the factory premises, it can be the “AC” sheeting, the water pipes, or roof shingles, textured paint, auto parts, certain automotive brake linings, or clutches where asbestos may be found.

Thus, everywhere in the world, countless people working in the many factories, for numerous hours per day on a regular basis, are constantly getting exposed to asbestos. Though not a hazardous substance in its static form, asbestos can be highly dangerous to people exposed to it when it is disturbed or damaged. This is because asbestos then ejects indefinite amounts of minute fibers into the environment. When pipe coverings or boiler insulations are cut by saws during repair and installation, or when dry mixture is scrapped, asbestos is set at large in the air inside the factory.

Dangers of Asbestos - Mesothelioma

When inhaled, these asbestos particles have the capability of causing permanent health damage to people. Lung cancer, asbestosis, and mesothelioma are some of the different respiratory diseases that can happen when a person is exposed to asbestos for major hours and over a long period, as is the case in a factory environment. Among these illnesses, mesothelioma is a cancer that is always a result of exposure to asbestos. Mesothelium is a shielding sac that protects most of the internal organs of the body. Cancerous cells grow in this sac when one is a victim of mesothelioma. The cancerous mesothelioma cells split in a wild way after becoming abnormal in nature. It may take 30 to 50 years to be diagnosed as a mesothelioma patient, and by then the patient’s age becomes a big hindrance during the various treatments such as radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or surgery.

Prevention of Health Issues from Asbestos

To prevent the release of asbestos fibers within the factory environment and harming the factory workers with deadly diseases like mesothelioma, preventive measures must be taken by the factory management and the trade unions of both, large and small industries. Responding to the workers’ concerns about the hazards of asbestos, maintaining latest news about the location and condition of asbestos within the factory location, conducting air testing and examination of work spots that have asbestos, and getting the asbestos removal always done by trained people under the proper guidelines set by the State, are some of the steps which must be followed.