My dad used baby powder as deodorant because he had sensitive skin. Died of lung cancer at age 58, and never smoked. Anecdotal, but this really pisses me off.
The various facets of all transportation industries probably have as much or more asbestos grinding into the air with particulate matter from vehicular brake systems on trains and automobiles, and to a lesser extent aviation.
The soot in the NYC subway is probably ripe with asbestos. Every time I smell that acrid ceramic smell of new brakes on a subway car, I figure I'm catching a whiff of asbestos, and it's a smell I encounter more than talc.
I only know the smell for what it is from changing brake pads on my car a few times, years ago.
Asbestos brake pads are illegal in the US as far as I know (and I’ve heard that the asbestos in the old banned ones was not the same as the really nasty stuff in insulation, even after being ground up during normal use).
Did NYC somehow get a special “kill all the commuters” exemption under the radar, or something?
Asbestos brake pads are NOT illegal in the US, according to the EPA[0]. I have not been able to find any evidence that asbestos brake particulate is safe[1].
There are numerous places online saying that most brake pads no longer use asbestos, particularly OEM brake pads. Though I can't find any numbers to back this up. Also, I have no idea how carcinogenic the replacement materials are; I hope they are less dangerous than asbestos.
I couldn’t find much detail about the sources of home/office radon in the linked site. Is it suspected to naturally occurring ie coming out of the ground or from some product or chemical used?
It rises up out of the ground, and the (expensive) solution is to install a vacuum system beneath the slab that vents the the outside. I know because my parents' house has such a system. More info: https://sosradon.org/reducing-radon-in-your-home
It comes out of the ground naturally in many places and accumulates to dangerous levels in buildings with poor ventilation. There is very little industrial use of radon.
As others have mentioned asbestos increases the risk of a very specific type of lung cancer.
People don’t seem to realize that there isn’t a cause for every case of cancer. Sometimes you just get cancer even having never been exposed to any risk factors.
I had heard that _any_ powder or particulate matter is a danger to lung health long term. Including talc whether or not it has asbestos.
The size of of the particles on the average might not be small enough to matter, but over time and volume there will be more than a few small particles.
