Occupation Exposure

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Insulators

You see insulators get employment in a variety of fields, but they especially have a responsibility to install and replace the materials that get used for insulating buildings.

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This will help with controlling and maintaining the temperatures inside of the building. While an insulator will normally work indoors in the industrial and residential settings, they might also have a role in working on machinery and ships. You have a variety of different occupations here.

What an Insulator Does

Normally, an insulation worker will look at how much insulation is needed, and they will look at the different methods involved in the installation of products. This will be based on a number of factors from surface shape to location to equipment use. These people will fit the insulation around the protective coverings. The people at this job will cut and measure the insulation to cover the different surfaces.

This work usually involves tools like handsaws, tape measures, scissors and knives. Some of the materials used will include the strips, tape, sealants and cement. The advantage of having insulation is how it lowers the cost of both cooling and heating by around 40 percent. Insulation has also been as a way to lower the background noise, and it helps with improving the energy efficiency. This is one of the simplest and most cost-effective ways that you can lower your energy usage.

Many Benefits, Many Risks

Insulation has a variety of benefits in today’s world, but you should also be aware of the potential consequences to your health. For example, any of the insulation that had been used between the 1930s and 1970s could have a carcinogenic substance in it called asbestos. This product was popular during this time because of how it was a fire-resistant material. Even insulators today could be at risk if they go to work on buildings and machinery that has asbestos-related material in them. A lot of this came from manufacturing before the 1980s.

The Locations and Products

Commonly used in the attics, floors, pipes, ceilings, roofs, walls and basements, asbestos-related insulation was popular in shipbuilding, residential homes and commercial construction projects. The attic, for example, often held a common source of asbestos. If you see the insulation called Zonolite, this was one of the most popular brands that they used to insulate the attics.

Pipes were another area where people would get exposed to the insulation-based contaminants. Many times when you had a heating, air conditioning or ventilation system within the home, it would have asbestos-based insulation. Block insulation was another area where insulation workers would get exposed to these carcinogenic contaminants. For example, block insulation often was applied to the concrete blocks within apartments, buildings and home. This helped to keep the cold and hot temperatures in good condition.

Finally, you also had what was known as wall insulation. This became one of the most effective ways that you could control and insulate the temperatures from inside of your home. Because of this, most wall insulation had asbestos-related particles in it. The insulation could be quite hazardous.

Exposure While on the Job

Asbestos-based insulation was one of the most common sources of exposure to those who worked with insulation. It was installed in ships, buildings, home, manufacturing facilities and car. That only names a few of the potential areas of exposure. Unfortunately, insulators got exposed to these products regularly, and the longer you get exposed to materials like this, the greater your chances of developing asbestos-related cancer and lung problems. What makes this composition dangerous is when the different pieces of the asbestos-based fibers break away from the insulation and float through the air.

Scientific Research

Based on a study from the British Journal of Industrial Medicine, 162 men who worked in this field were exposed to the insulation. There was an unignorable number of deaths because of this exposure. People developed mesothelioma and lung cancer as a result. The men from the study were anywhere from 16 years old to 66 years old, and a few of them had worked for over 35 years.

Quite a few lawsuits in this field have been filed as a result of people getting exposed to asbestos-based products. Working within a contaminated area could be a deadly decision. Clarence Borel filed on of the first lawsuits that were successful against an asbestos-based manufacturer. He filed the lawsuit in 1973. Borel worked at the oil refineries and shipyards right along the border between Texas and Louisiana.

After around the middle part of the 1960s Borel’s lungs were weakened from the exposure to asbestos-related products, and he had a hard time breathing. Unfortunately, before Borel could ever collect his compensation to help with the medical expenses, he died, and the court ruled in favor of his wife.

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