Just noting it's not just asbestos. There was also crystalline silica, cadmium, lead (Pb) and probably many other contaminates in the dust and rubble, plus whatever was in the initial fire and smoke.
To clarify, they didn't contain a "high amount" of asbestos, but there also wasn't "no" asbestos:
>Much of the thousands of tons of debris resulting from the collapse of the Twin Towers was pulverized concrete, which is known to cause silicosis upon inhalation. The remainder consisted of more than 2,500 contaminants, more specifically: 50% non-fibrous material and construction debris; 40% glass and other fibers; 9.2% cellulose; and 0.8% of the extremely toxic carcinogen asbestos, as well as detectable amounts of lead and mercury.
Asbestos is a hazard, but a manageable one if it's still intact. I think there's probably an analogous risk here - as long as people aren't somehow ingesting it, it's probably fine where it is. If you're doing demolition where the material is involved, some proper PPE and disposal is in order.
The first 40 floors of the World Trade Center, both towers, had every steel beam covered in asbestos. The collapse released 2,000 tons of fibers into the atmosphere on 9/11/01.
I wonder if this was actually even problematic for them. My understanding is that asbestos is no worse than other rocks and silica formations when aerosolized it's just that asbestos was so useful it was much more heavily industrialized in a manner that was injurious to the lungs.
Yeah I went down the asbestos rabbit hole a few years ago. It is insane how much stuff was made with it. There’s basically a non-zero background level at all time
Asbestos is clearly linked to cancer > asbestos was found in talc and known to form with talc naturally > risk of using talc that isn’t pure.
The problem is whether talc is pure. At that point it becomes a question of how much you trust J&J to verify that. My guess is that different mined sources varied in asbestos composition and there likely was some contamination that went undetected. But who knows.
I hope they dont cause any weird diseases..
I'm just thinking of asbestos-concrete.. It was amazing at the time, far greater tensile strength and fire safety.
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