• MacN'Cheezus@lemmy.todayOP
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    3 days ago

    Smoking is certainly not the only way to acquire lung cancer, it’s merely the most popular. She might have spent years living in an apartment that used asbestos for insulation, very common for the boomer generation.

    At any rate, I am sorry to hear about what you and her are going through and I wish both of you — well, I’m not even sure what to say here without sounding cheesy or cliché — but whatever is needed to make this journey more bearable.

      • MacN'Cheezus@lemmy.todayOP
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        3 days ago

        The problem is, it rarely ends up staying there. At some point, the walls always end up coming down one way or another , don’t they.

        • pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online
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          2 days ago

          Yes, but it’s usually not the building residents that take them down. The vast majority of mesothelioma cases are people who worked with asbestos as part of their job.

          • MacN'Cheezus@lemmy.todayOP
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            2 days ago

            Sure but I’ve definitely heard of cases where residents ended up getting exposed too. Lack of proper maintenance, accidents, ill-advised wall drilling, etc.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Asbestos insulation is actually perfectly safe, in the wall.

        Older apartments, particularly ones that have been regularly renovated or poorly maintained, don’t do a good job of keeping asbestos inside the walls. Also, asbestos itself tends to break down over time and become more difficult to keep contained. This makes asbestos cleanup extremely difficult and expensive.

    • troglodytis@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Thanks.

      I’ll take cheesy & cliché all day. Except “thoughts & prayers”. “Thoughts & prayers” is the cancer of cheesy & cliché. Fuck cancer.