'Naked' scanners removed, air travelers get back a little dignity...

[THe Yetti]

I think asbestos was used for well longer than a decade before they figured out it wasn't good for you either.

[cstone]

I think asbestos was used for well longer than a decade before they figured out it wasn't good for you either.

Do you mean breathing the loose fibers while in enclosed spaces? Asbestos in a stable form is still one of the most cost effective fire retardant systems. Lawyers like Peter Angelos have made a fortune in product liability suits which cost consumers and taxpayers far more money than it has generated for the people who were exposed to asbestos.

If you are implying that years from now we may find out that over exposure to low levels of radiation over many years may turn out to have harmful effects, I won't argue that point. Please put down your cell phone, don't have any more medical x-rays including dental. Please don't get an MRI or CAT scan, and for goodness sake stay away from flying at commercial aviation altitudes. Who knows what all of the wifi radio waves will do. Maybe the genetically altered food or use of plastic for storing food will kill us.

At least you have a choice at the airport; get irradiated or groped. Your tax dollars at work.

How much fear should we respond to while going about our daily lives?

Be safe.

[silentshooter]

Do you mean breathing the loose fibers while in enclosed spaces? Asbestos in a stable form is still one of the most cost effective fire retardant systems. Lawyers like Peter Angelos have made a fortune in product liability suits which cost consumers and taxpayers far more money than it has generated for the people who were exposed to asbestos.

as someone who has been a Certified Asbestos supervisor and who's family owns a large remediation company you are spot on. Asbestos is just something they have put a spot light on. You know all the guys from ground zero with lung issues, those are not from asbestos. That is from extreme exposure to thing like silicates and other fibers. When your Lungs can't expunge what you breath your body tries to absorb and break it down. The acids can cause scaring with things like asbestos and silicates as they are not broken down easily.

Simply put anything in to large of Dosage over prolonged exposure can cause issues. Astronauts have a maximum lifetime REM count that they can reach, Pilots as well are monitored in annual physicals because of the increased radiation exposure.

[silentshooter]

I think asbestos was used for well longer than a decade before they figured out it wasn't good for you either.

Yet we have been doing radiation studies at NASA for Decades for the space program, Xray studies for medical research, and tons of RF studies for the FDA and FCC. I think we have done a little more research.
Asbestos really is just a non toxic stone, the issue is just like other silicates is when it is inhaled in your lungs. Unlike other silicates its fibers are extremely small. And to make maters worse certain types are extremely resistant to water requiring special encapsulates to knock the fibers down. We have know the effects since the 1930's in the US and in the 1800's the first cases were discovered.

There has always been asbestos fibers in the air, arctic ice shows this. And human lungs have shown that we all have tens of thousands of asbestos fibers in our lungs. It requires extreme and repeated exposure to asbestos to cause major health issues.