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Gold Prospecting
Gold localities & information
Wagga Wagga Riverina region NSW information and questions
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<blockquote data-quote="user 4386" data-source="post: 476192" data-attributes="member: 4386"><p>Asbestos won't jump up and bite you, you just need to exercise common sense. The asbestos occurring naturally in rocks has fibres that are fairly tightly bound together in the rock. A hundred years of lying on a mine dump WILL loosen those fibres up, so you would not want to be throwing shovelfuls in the air and breathing in the dust. The most dangerous asbestos does not occur in NSW (blue asbestos) - instead NSW only has a pale green asbestos (which you still do not want to inhale, but it has more flexible fibres in the main). Normal detecting activity is not likely to cause you to breathe any, unless you start throwing up clouds of dust from old mine dumps that have it (but of course even fine quartz dust can give you silicosis - but I have never heard of anyone who thought they got it this way). The people who suffer from such things are those that work with them as powder, those who blast them (especially with quartz - sharp, newly-broken particles), and those who work in mines. Even Johnson and Johnson have reportedly admitted that their baby powder (talcum powder) contains traces of asbestos - something I have always suspected because of the similar mineralogy and chemistry.</p><p></p><p>The moral is - watch what you inhale (even bulldust when driving outback roads).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="user 4386, post: 476192, member: 4386"] Asbestos won't jump up and bite you, you just need to exercise common sense. The asbestos occurring naturally in rocks has fibres that are fairly tightly bound together in the rock. A hundred years of lying on a mine dump WILL loosen those fibres up, so you would not want to be throwing shovelfuls in the air and breathing in the dust. The most dangerous asbestos does not occur in NSW (blue asbestos) - instead NSW only has a pale green asbestos (which you still do not want to inhale, but it has more flexible fibres in the main). Normal detecting activity is not likely to cause you to breathe any, unless you start throwing up clouds of dust from old mine dumps that have it (but of course even fine quartz dust can give you silicosis - but I have never heard of anyone who thought they got it this way). The people who suffer from such things are those that work with them as powder, those who blast them (especially with quartz - sharp, newly-broken particles), and those who work in mines. Even Johnson and Johnson have reportedly admitted that their baby powder (talcum powder) contains traces of asbestos - something I have always suspected because of the similar mineralogy and chemistry. The moral is - watch what you inhale (even bulldust when driving outback roads). [/QUOTE]
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Gold Prospecting
Gold localities & information
Wagga Wagga Riverina region NSW information and questions
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