How to judge risk of brief asbestos exposure.

March 22, 2006 6:04 PM

Asbestos exposure and pregnancy: at my wife's workplace, they've announced that they are closing off a bathroom for asbestos removal over a weekend. Is it wise for her to avoid the office (all in close proximity to the space) on, say, Monday? Longer? Or needlessly paranoid? She's feeling especially cautious as she is five months pregnant.

The asbestos type in question is chrysotile. I've already explored what resources I could find, although most on the Web seem to be offered by legal outfits looking to drum up lawsuits, and therefore aren't of interest. I found this through the EPA's asbestos pages; but it seems hard to find any resources to help you decide whether the kind of potential exposure we're looking at here is a pointlessly small increase in risk, or something to be taken quite seriously. Anyone have any serious knowledge on the subject, or a better source for plain-English information than what I've found?

posted by BT to health (14 comments total)

I think she should ask to work from home or else get a doctor's note to stay off. Regardless of whether asbestos is a problem, she'll always wonder if she did the right thing. She'll also be under stress if she's at work and wondering if she did the right thing. If she simply avoids the problem, she won't have to wonder about it the rest of her life. (Parents carry guilt about everything.)
posted by acoutu at 6:08 PM on March 22, 2006

Isn't the danger from asbestos caused from breathing it in? How could that harm a baby?
posted by reverendX at 6:13 PM on March 22, 2006

reverendX is correct. The reason asbestos is dangerous is because the dust from it has pointy edges and stays in your lungs a long time, not that it is chemically toxic. Exposure to it may harm her own lungs but it will have no affect on the fetus she is carrying.
posted by aubilenon at 6:17 PM on March 22, 2006

They'll partition off the space to be worked on and will install proper ventalation. It's quite the production. There should be little asbestos in the air outside the bathroom.

And it's not as if you'll develop lung cancer after two days of minimal exposure.

There's little to worry about.
posted by DieHipsterDie at 7:11 PM on March 22, 2006

If done by a properly licensed and trained company, your wife need not worry. As DieHipsterDie pointed out- it can be quite the production. I applaud your organization for notifying everyone.
posted by bytemover at 7:30 PM on March 22, 2006

This is a good question for her to discuss with her obstetrician. For peace of mind, if nothing else. Even if every single person on AskMe says the same thing, it give her half the reassurance as hearing it from her doctor.

If the removal is being done by properly credentialed professionals, they'll be going to great lengths to prevent the asbestos from becoming airborne and to contain the space completely until the last particle is sucked out of there.

I'd say the greater danger (to herself) is before the abatement. Especially if there's any sign of cracking or flaking already.

It would be good to avoid that bathroom and nearby areas (i.e. places where the particles are likely to have blown into, or tracked then picked back up into the air) until the cleanup is finished.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 7:34 PM on March 22, 2006

This evidence-based site (which has great info on pregnancy/breastfeeding, btw) says it's not a concern. But, as I said, consider whether your wife will actually feel at ease. Anxiety runs high during pregnancy and sometimes avoiding a situation is the best remedy.
posted by acoutu at 7:37 PM on March 22, 2006

As others have said, it's a respiratory irritant only so only your wife could be at risk, not the baby.

Regardless of that, there's little to nothing even for her to worry about: we've had asbestos removed from our uni (Adelaide) over the last couple of years and they're usually quite careful with it and provide air monitoring devices for the duration of the removal and several weeks afterwards. The levels in the air are logged and posted on the wall by each monitor and we can compare those against whatever guidelines we like: the levels are always so low as to be laughable.

There was one incident where a contractor removed vinyl-asbestos tiling (asbestos fibres embedded in vinyl floor tiles) from a stairwell without realising what it was and took no precautions. Lots of red faces and rapid installation of monitors ensued, only to not detect meaningful amounts of asbestos in the air. Therefore if the asbestos is embedded in a plasticiser (eg vinyl tiles), you're almost certainly completely safe.

As for big wads of dry fibre insulation or fireproofing, that could be a different matter. We had fireproofing asbestos foam crap sprayed all over structural beams in our ceilings and that was one of the things they removed (slowly and very carefully) early on; once again with no meaningful fibre levels detected in the office air.

So: I say don't worry about it and certainly the baby has nothing to worry about at all. Look at the people who did get asbestos-related diseases (eg mesothelioma; a terrible, terrible way to die that one of my mum's friends had) and they're all people who worked all day, every day with asbestos or in an asbestos-processing plant. The people I'm talking about are Hardie employees and plasterers; almost no one else had any issues from it.

If your wife can't relax about it, it's probably easier to ask to work from home for the duration of work. It won't make her respiratory system any safer but if it reduces even subconscious stress levels, that could be good for the pregnancy. Ask management to publicly post the air monitoring results daily for peace of mind.

IANAD, IAAElecEng and have read up on it a little due to the friend with mesothelioma so take this with a grain of salt.
posted by polyglot at 8:11 PM on March 22, 2006

Thanks all. Mostly doing due diligence to make sure we weren't missing any important information that might be out there -- it was apparent that this is an issue primarily for those at risk for breathing/ingesting fibers on a regular basis, but it's hard to sort through the data to make sure. We will probably talk to the OB, and she may stay clear for a day or two for peace-of-mind's sake, but I'm glad to have my sense that this is not the biggest thing we have to worry about confirmed.
posted by BT at 8:20 PM on March 22, 2006

I'd stay away, for peace of mind's sake. I can think of very little that sounds worse than dying of mesothelioma.

From the National Cancer Institute:

Nearly everyone is exposed to asbestos at some time during their life. However, most people do not become ill from their exposure. People who become ill from asbestos are usually those who are exposed to it on a regular basis, most often in a job where they work directly with the material or through substantial environmental contact. [...] Although it is known that the risk to workers increases with heavier exposure and longer exposure time, investigators have found asbestos-related diseases in individuals with only brief exposures.

Not the biggest thing you have to worry about by a long shot, but if it's not much trouble to rearrange work to be away at the time, then I'd do it if I was you.
posted by robcorr at 11:55 PM on March 22, 2006

This may give you some idea of the risk. "Asbestos worker" is someone who works with it every day and is exposed to tens of billions more fibres than your wife will be. PS: smoking sucks. Smoking at an asbestos plant, um, really sucks.


posted by polyglot at 4:42 AM on March 23, 2006

My father has mesothelioma and was an accountant for a juice company his entire working life. Exposure to asbestos on a daily basis, needless to say, wasn't probable.

When he was ten, an asbestos-wrapped furance was removed from his parents' home, and he, like any boy of that age, watched the workmen and played with them. That was his one and only exposure to asbestos, as far as anyone can tell.

It definitley DOES NOT have to be daily exposure.
posted by MeetMegan at 8:27 AM on March 23, 2006

Yeah, I'd say it's very unlikely to harm your wife, and can't harm the baby because it's not going to be doing any breathing.
posted by delmoi at 9:07 AM on March 23, 2006

The level of caution legally mandated for asbestos removal makes it incredibly unlikely that she'd have any exposure to fibers that would lodge in her lungs. Absolutely no risk to the baby is possible, just as others have mentioned.

It might be worth asking what they're removing that has asbestos in it -- it's only anecdotal, but my father has known a few electricians who had lung cancer after years of exposure to insulation, but he's known no one who has broken up asbestos-containing floor tile who has had lung cancer. He even sanded the finish off of asbestos tile a number of times a few decades ago -- the fine powder isn't the same as the fibers that become airborne.

I would imagine a lot of people have walked by asbestos removal sites without reading the signs and haven't noticed. When I was in college there would be occasional steam tunnel maintenance where there would be a plastic tent above the tunnel entrance and a number of fans to ensure that the air didn't drift out. A lot of old pipe insulation has asbestos as well. Anyone directly handling the materials will have something between a face mask and a body suit depending on the amount of material.

She might want to stay home if she works close enough due to annoying fans and people rustling plastic sheeting throughout the day, but I doubt a health risk.
posted by mikeh at 11:06 AM on March 23, 2006