Asbestos is a very dangerous mineral that, when exposed to for an extended amount of time, can cause a multitude of cancers and diseases. Some of these cancers include mesothelioma and also asbestos-related lung cancer. The most fatal and dangerous cancers of the two is mesothelioma, it has a very low survival rate.  However, to contract these cancers, one must be exposed to asbestos over a long period of time in relatively large amounts. Although this may make it seem like asbestos is not that dangerous since it can take such a long exposure time to contract any kind of disease or cancer from the deadly fibers, this is not actually the case. There are many ways where someone can be repeatedly exposed to asbestos for a long period of time and not even be fully aware of the precautions they need to take. Someone can be exposed through decaying or  damaged building materials in their homes that contained asbestos. Many construction workers are also repeatedly exposed to asbestos through performing improper asbestos removal projects or when they don’t know that there is asbestos in a building that they may be demolishing.

    Sometimes the people demolishing buildings don’t even know that they are demolishing buildings that have  asbestos in them or working in an unauthorized asbestos cleanup. There’s currently a case going on against a Seattle hotel owner who had uncertified workers removing asbestos from a building project that he was working on. This is extremely dangerous and puts the workers and any surrounding people around the area at risk for asbestos exposure. Workers who constantly work on projects like this where asbestos are improperly removed run the risk of developing mesothelioma, asbestosis, pleural thickening, or asbestos-related lung cancer in their later years. Asbestos abatement is a very delicate process and takes many different steps done by trained professionals. It involves wetting down the asbestos, collecting any asbestos contaminated material, and safely packing them away and special asbestos containment barrels and shipping them off to be properly disposed of by the authorities.

    This hotel owner in Seattle originally admitted to investigators on the case that he had hired unauthorized workers to remove the asbestos in one of his hotels. This is a clear violation of the Clean Air Act and he will be fined over $300,000 for the danger that he has put these workers in. However, although he did admit to the investigators that he had unqualified workers working on his hack job of an asbestos abatement he later, under oath, claimed that he himself was the one who removed the asbestos. Either way, this is clearly not the way that an asbestos abatement is supposed to go.  When you detect asbestos in your building it is important to always call the proper asbestos abatement and remover companies to safely remove and dispose of any asbestos in the contaminated area