How does asbestos cause cancer in the home?
The evidence that we know that asbestos can cause human lung cancer is from the worker studies, or from the women who are laundering the clothing of their husbands who came home from the shipyards and they got puffs of asbestos off the clothing as they were handling it to throw it into the washing machine. They got lung cancer also, mesothelioma. However, cancer from pipe wrap or insulation around a boiler, or a furnace in your home, there is no evidence that that has led to lung cancer. So what we're telling people with pipe wrap, or insulation, around a furnace is to make sure it's in good shape, don't handle it or damage it in any way, you don't necessarily have to remove it from your home if it's in good shape. If it is deteriorating and flaking and creating a mess, that certainly is something you want to have cleaned up, it's certainly something you want to have removed by a professional who is going to seal off the area to make sure the fibers don't spread all over your basement and all over your home. Asbestos is something that you can track through your entire house. So even though we don't have a smoking gun from this source of asbestos in homes, cause we know it is a carcinogen, we know it can damage the deep lungs, you want to be careful with it and avoid exposure either by making sure it's intact and not flaking, some people will actually put other wrapping on top of it to sort of hold it in place, and also, if it is flaking and deteriorating you want to bring in a professional to remove it.
