ASBESTOS Essays - Asbestos, Occupational Safety And Health

ASBESTOS Asbestos-containing products were widely used in the construction of houses, apartments, offices and schools up to the 1970's. However, the presence of asbestos- containing products in the area in which you live, work, or go to school at is not necessarily a hazardous condition. It is only hazardous when asbestos-containing products break down and become airborne then a hazardous condition is created. In 1995, OSHA issued workplace standards for testing, maintenance and disclosure of asbestos. This caused a greater awareness of the danger for the dangers asbestos, especially in public places. This soon became more of a controversy than anything else, with some saying that asbestos was no threat and that by taking it out of a building would cause more of a problem than simply just leaving it in a biulding. Even though many times people felt that asbestos should just be left alone the government decided to rule on the side of safety. This decision to make all schools have Their asbestos monitored came in 1986 after congress passed the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA) to protect the public school students and employees. This helped those people in charge of schools feel better about the facilities in which people worked. Thankfully these changes helped us all, especially after the evidence showing that asbestos can cause cancer and other disease. The one question that still remains, is who will risk there well being to go and take out this terrible product that may cause cancer? This question was answered by many producers that helped develop airtight clothing, which helped people properly dispose of this product in a way that it would not cause any danger to them or the people who would be entering buildings that where striped of this product. Because of all of these actions, the use of asbestos is almost none. This will help not only the cause of cancer and other problems from developing, but will also help the owners of new buildings from having to pay large amounts of money to have asbestos taken out when it becomes a problem.