Asbestos and Other Hazardous Wastes

Asbestos has been used in products since the first century as tablecloths, candle wicks, blankets, etc. At that time the advice to slave owners: do not buy slaves who had worked in an asbestos mine, because they died prematurely.
In the early 18^thcentury asbestos started to be used in building materials and continued in the United States until its use in building materials started to be banned in 1973.
U.S. Public Health Service recommended guidelines on asbestos exposure as early as 1938, but the advent of World War II brought about the abundant use of asbestos containing building and insulation materials.
If you think about the massive amount of asbestos containing material that has been installed in our built environment (meaning all man made asbestos environments, including landfills), it makes you wonder, is there enough money to remove it, and if it is all removed where will we store it and how many deaths will occur from now to then?

• In the United States 3,000 people are diagnosed with Mesothelioma each year.
• Nearly 125 million people worldwide encounter asbestos in the workplace.
• Research estimates that 100,000 people die each year from asbestos-related diseases, and that there will be 5 million to 10 million deaths worldwide from asbestos-related cancers by 2030.
• Every year there are more people killed by asbestos than in road accidents.

In what century will we be wise enough to realize we have to permanently rid our built environment of asbestos and other cacogenic-hazardous waste?
The only answer to the aforementioned question is to develop technologies that will permanently eliminate hazard-carcinogenic wastes from our built environment.
There is a proven non-thermal, EPA approved method to rid our environment of asbestos.
The owners of facilities or the CEOs and CFOs should seek out the best possible solution and technologies that eliminate hazardous wastes. This mission should be a priority and should be demanded by the stakeholders of these facilities.
After all, taking care of the earth is our responsibility for our children’s future existence