blue marble and asbestos

[RandyJ <beetle@xxxxxxxxx>]

* Follow-up to message from: justin rego
* Original date (y/m/d) was: 28 Mar 2003
* Original subject was: blue marble

Justin

I'm sorry I don't know the name of the blue marble I
mentioned. It was not solid blue, but streaked with white,
as I recall, and very crystalline and beautiful.

The point is, all stones you carve should be inspected
carefully (although, unfortunately, the fibers and crystals
can be microscopic), as asbestos is certainly more common
than generally believed. I have seen it also in Colorado
Yule marble, chlorite, and black Virginia soapstone, and
have been told it can also occur with granite (or the
ubiquitous commercial "granite") and in gneiss and has caused
problems for some people carving Belgian black marble of
lower grades. I've heard that related minerals such as
epidote (as in green green crystals or green shear zones in
marbles, dolomite, or granite)and wolostonite (which can
form as white clouds that look like bruises in marble) may
be just as bad, as they too form needle-like insoluble
crystal structures that are retained by the lungs. Nephrite
jade is essentially pure asbestos, as is tiger's eye.

Yes, in theory, a P-100 or N-100 mask can protect you,
provided it seals tightly, you have no facial hair
interfering, you don't leave your mask lying around in the
studio, you don't eat or drink in the studio or when dusty
etc. etc. But then the stuff will be on your skin, in your
hair, in your laundry and laundry room, tracking it into
your home, in your bathroom, floating around in your studio
even when you're not actively carving etc. Remember, it's
the microscopic fragments that are the most dangerous, as
they penetrate the lungs most deeply and are therefore less
likely to be expelled.

The bottom line is, the US government has a near-zero
tolerance for the stuff and maybe sculptors should too, so
be smart about what you carve and how you behave. All of
this is one reason I have gone entirely to wet cutting, and
still wear a respirator. I still carve Yule marble,dolomite,
and granite, as well as probably safer stones such as
limestones, basalt, and sandstone. Alabaster is generally
considered a very safe stone.

Asbestos is wierd stuff: some people can breathe it all
their working life and never have a problem. Others breathe
it all their working life and develop asbestosis, a
scarification that gradually shuts down the lungs. Other
people develop lung cancer, some from a lifetime of
exposure, others reportedly from exposure to only a very
small number of fibers, although it may take 40 years to
develop. It's your choice: what sort of odds do you care to
live by? I know what my choice is, given that I have young
children, and want to carve full-time for the next 30 or 40
years.

It IS known that asbestos exposure coupled with smoking
exponentially increases your chances of developing lung
cancer over the probability from either factor in isolation
(I am curious: why do so many stone sculptors smoke? At
least my impression is that a high percentage do.) Anyway,
many people don't want to hear about this, as it may imply
the advisability of too many inconvenient changes in
behavior (cognitive dissonance), and I do want to retain
some friends in the carving community. E-mail me separately
if you wish to discuss more.