this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2024
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Science Memes

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Magic Mineral (mander.xyz)
submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[โ€“] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

To quote Wikipedia:

Asbestos is an excellent thermal and electrical insulator, and is highly fire resistant, so for much of the 20th century, it was very commonly used around the world as a building material.

It was also later discovered to cause lung cancer, mesothelioma and also because of its fibrous structure; it breaks into lots of tiny little microscopic needles when agitated. Those little shards get inhaled and poke tiny holes in your lungs which causes Asbestosis (kind of like Emphysema for smokers).

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

Sometimes the little shards make it through the lungs into the blood and thence onwards to cause cancer in any part of the body* it comes to rest

*Except the most protected parts: brain and gonads