The other day I was talking to a friend of a friend. He was telling me that he had an asbestos roof on his shed, he had been quoted $100s to get it removed safely by a professional asbestos removal company. Instead he purchased a $5 facemask and did the work himself. He was very pleased with himself that he had saved $100s. He might not have been so pleased with himself if he had read about Dr Geoffrey Newton from the UK…
Dr Geoffrey Newton died of mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is the lung cancer you get from inhaling asbestos dust. The scary things is, Dr Newton only ever came into direct contact with asbestos for two hours hours of his life, when he was removing an old boiler that was packed with asbestos. Just two hours of contact with asbestos caused Dr Newton to be diagnosed with mesothelioma 37 years later, and it killed him. Also he was lucky in a sense that it took 37 years for the cancer to develop. Most people get ill much sooner.
The takeaway message – DON’T mess around with asbestos! Seriously, pay what you need to pay to get it removed safely, you owe it to yourself and your family… Henry David Thoreau said “the price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it“. I know this isn’t really what he meant, but the price of saving a few 100 dollars, could be your life, and worse still, the life of your loved ones…
I hope my friend of a friend will be ok, as he has a young family. Please don’t make the same error in judgement that he did. You can read the full story about Dr Geoffrey Newton here.
I realize that the title of this post is a bit misleading, but I knew more people would read this, rather than just titling it the dangers of asbestos etc. PLEASE share this post with as many people as possible, hopefully it will make people stop and think.
