Re: You can't just wash that asbestos right out of your bed

"Anth" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Precisely, it's about risk and other factors - you can't just show what %
> asbestos exposure would induce cancer in all mice.
> Anth
>
No, but numbers still have meaning.  If one person out of two died after
working ten years in a dust clogged factory that would be very serious.  And
from what I gather that's about it.  This definitely a bad career choice.
It also means that if you spend one day a year in the same factory, your
average life expectancy with respect to asbestos induced cancer would be
5000 years.  In other words, it would add about 1% to my chance of dying any
given time period.  It sounds like something to avoid but I wouldn't get
panic struck if it happened to me once and was unlikely to be repeated.
Walking across a heap of dust would be like 1 minute.  If this happened once
a year, my life expectancy would be 2,400,000 years.  I'm afraid that is
rather far beyond my planning horizon.  My chances of getting hit by a car
while walking down the street are a lot higher.

It's worthwhile having a sense of proportion.with your worries.  I put the
hazard of walking across a plaster/asbestos pile about the same as jay
walking downtown, more than walking across the street in my neighbourhood
but a lot less than running across the freeway.  By-the-way, the probability
of getting a fine jaywalking has a bigger influence on my decisions than the
probability of getting hit by a car.

I do not worry about bogey men anymore.  Much.

Walter.