ATSDR ToxFAQs fact sheet on asbestos hazards

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

ATSDR-ToxFAQs:

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E PDF File for Printing ToxFAQs™ for (See PDF Info) z Public Health Statement Asbestos Toxicological Profile CAS# 1332-21^

Minimal Risk Levels September 2001 Division of Toxicology Thisfact sheet answers the mostfrequently asked health questions about asbestos. For more information, you mtgt call the ATSDR Highlights Information Center at 1-888-422-8737. This fact sheet is one in a series ofsummaries about hazardous substances and their health What is it? effects. This information is important because this substance may harm you. The effects of exposure to any hazardous substance depend What happens to it in on the dose, the duration, how you are exposed, individual the environment? susceptibility andpersonal habits, and whether other chemicals are How might I be exposed present. to it?

How can it affect mv health? HIGHLIGHTS: Exposure to asbestos usually occurs by breathing contaminated air in workplaces that make or How likely is it to cause use asbestos. Asbestos is also found in the air of buildings cancer? containing asbestos that are being tom down or How does it affect renovated. Asbestos exposure can cause serious lung children? problems and cancer. This substance has been found in How can families at least 83 of the 1,585 National Priorities List sites reduce their risk for identified by the Environmental Protection Agency exposure to it? (EPA). Is there a medical test for exposure? What is asbestos? Are there federal (Pronounced as-bes'tos) recommendations? Asbestos is the name given to a group of six different fibrous minerals Contact for more (amosite, chrysotile, crocidolite, and the fibrous varieties of tremolite, information actinolite, and anthophyllite) that occur naturally in the environment. Asbestos minerals have separable long fibers that are strong and flexible enough to be spun and woven and are heat resistant. Because of these characteristics, asbestos has been used for a wide range of manufactured goods, mostly in building materials (roofing shingles, ceiling and floor tiles, paper products, and asbestos cement products), friction products

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