Asbestos in yer water...

Because the water pipe is made of "asbestos and cement". The asbestos fibres are bonded inside the cement. Wall boards were also made that way.

Yebbut over time, probably a good many decades, and with many millions of gallons of water passing through the pipe in that time, the cement component will slowly erode or dissolve, probably both, and the asbestos particles will gradually be released. Not in high concentration, or all at once, but they'll be there, nevertheless.

If you swallow asbestos, it'll just go straight through and come out the next time you take a s*it, or the time after that. It's not chemically poisonous. White asbestos is simply a hydrated magnesium silicate; blue/brown asbestos also contains sodium and iron in varying proportions. If the latter type gets into your lungs, it's a different matter. It's a physical problem in there, not a chemical one. The body's natural clearance processes can't shift it because the fibres are too long and it stays there a very long time. So it eventually causes a tumor, mesothelioma. Less of a problem with white asbestos.

Because TPTB are ultra cautious and want to protect themselves against any criticism of exposing Joe public to a hazard. It's just the same with nuclear safety, as you well know and keep saying. But chucking it in a pond wouldn't actually get rid of it in the sense of dissolving it. Chucking it in an acid bath might, but that would be a lot more expensive than just burying it in a special landfill site. It could be dumped at sea, I suppose, that's a big enough pond, but FOE would be up in arms, claiming it was killing the fish.

And of course how hazardous it is depends on the type of asbestos, blue/brown or white, but again, TPTB lump it all together under the one category, to be on the safe side.

In all but the softest of water areas the inside of the pipes furs up with a protective layer of limescale and rust fairly quickly. It is only a problem then if it gets disturbed. I didn't think they were using it for new builds today though it was very common in the past.

They do damp down asbestos when they are removing it to avoid airborne fibres escaping. It is asbestos cement anyway so most of the fibres are trapped in a cement matrix unless you smash it up a la Malcolm McClaren.

It is less serious if it doesn't get deep into your lungs too.

It actually explains a lot. Perhaps it was lead lined too?

To some extent that is the way to handle asbestos, keep it wet and the harmful fibres don't get into the air where you can breathe them.

Indeed, and they are all subject to 'asbestos removal hazard' etc etc

Its not just fibres, its cment and fibres.

Equipment:

Provide:

- disposable overalls fitted with a hood;

- boots without laces (laced boots are hard to decontaminate); and

- respiratory protective equipment.

Shows full respirators as mandatory for taking down e.g. an asbestos roof

I am not claiming water pipes are dangerous. I am pointing out the absolute dual standards applied to asbestos.

what dual standards? It isn't fibrous asbestos as used to be used for thermal insulation.

Can you actually READ?

The PDF I pointed to was about dismantling ROOVES and GUTTERS

"Removing asbestos cement (AC) sheets, gutters etc and dismantling a small AC structure"

The Natural Philosopher laid this down on his screen :

Where is the money to be made and white suits to be worn in doing that?

In message , Harry Bloomfield writes

I was always taught that white asbestos and talc were similar chemically.

So I have always been very careful who I kissed.

And where you kissed them

Anyone foolish enough to inhale the water deserves to get a lung condition.

You may have access to that site, but no one else will..

Well having recently seen the thickness of limescale in a land-drain taking away spring water (about a centimetre in 4 years) I rather suspect that asbestos water mains will be OK.

In any case, the problem is inhaling airborn fibres, which end up forever in the alveoli. I suspect that drinking them is much less harmful.

Did you try it? It didn't ask me to log in. If no one else can see it, try this "Researchers studied more than 2,000 women with ovarian cancer and a similar-sized control group who were free of disease. Overall, they found a 33% increase in the risk of ovarian cancer with genital talc use" from here

Well it did me

Ah yes. shave your pussy and talc it instead of washing it every time you pee.

I get the pleasure of attending an asbestos awareness course every year.

The simple answer is because you drink water and do not breath it in.

The last guy that did the last course asked everyone "Why do goldfish and budgies never get asbestosis?" Well the goldfish answer was because it does not breath air and the second answer was because budgies do not have a long enough lifespan to develop it.

That's when the apprentice stuck his arm up in the air and asked "Does anyone ever test goldfish and budgies for asbestosis when they die?"

The guy doing the course answered "no" and the apprentice then asked "so how do you know how they died?".

That's OCD!