Medical Questions » Lungs Questions » Question No. 598
| Question: | About 6 months ago 1 was moving a quantity of asbestos sheets without any protection, and that night I coughed a lot and felt irritation on my chest. This has persisted ever since. I would appreciate it if you could advise me what to do. |
| Answer: | Asbestos can only cause harm to humans if inhaled. Touching, or even swallowing small amounts of asbestos, is quite harmless. To be inhaled, asbestos must be in a dust or powder form, and it is sometimes used in this way as insulation in ceilings and between walls. The sawing of asbestos sheets also produces asbestos dust that can be inhaled, and particles of asbestos may be widespread in asbestos mines and factories that manufacture asbestos products.
Old asbestos sheets may deteriorate to the point where the surface breaks down and crumbles, and a small amount of asbestos dust may be produced in this way.
If small amounts of asbestos dust are inhaled infrequently, the lungs can cope adequately and expel the particles. Only long exposure to considerable amounts of asbestos dust will result in severe lung disease.
The asbestos patticles are quite long and thin fibres when viewed under a microscope, which makes them difficult for the lung to remove by coughing up the mucus that accumulates around them. Over a number of years, they can irritate the lung lining to the point where the cells become cancerous. The most common form of lung cancer caused by asbestos is called mesothelioma, and this is virtually untreatable.
The casual handling of sheets of asbestos for a short period of time is not going to cause any lasting lung disease, and I suspect your cough is coincidental, x-rays would not show the presence of small quantities of asbestos dust in the lungs. Please be reassured.
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