High-quality black-and-white photographs of large old machines and tools

[old kodger]

I remember a yellow 1/2pint can of white lead we were taught to use for lubrication on the dead center on the lathe tailstock in 8th or 9th grade shop class. It is a wonder any of us are still alive all stuff we did.

I painted 20ltrs of lead based paint on the deck of my boat, by hand with a paint brush yeh, I'm still here, also, like I suspect MANY other mechanics did in the sixties, removed brake drums and blew asbestos dust all over the workshop. If asbestos is the cause of mesothelioma. I should have died yeas ago. I'm convinced that most of this is disinformation designed to cover up something else. Suggested, but unprovable was the info that "they" could not surveil through asbestos. Well they clearly could not tell everybody to remove the asbestos from their rooves so that they could spy on you so they dreamed up a fear campaign to get folks to do it voluntarily.

[cmarlow]

If I had known I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself when I was younger.

[old kodger]

If I had known I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself when I was younger.

I did take better care of myself, and to date have outlived all of my family with the exception of my sister who is 5 years younger than I.

[bruce.desertrat]

I painted 20ltrs of lead based paint on the deck of my boat, by hand with a paint brush yeh, I'm still here, also, like I suspect MANY other mechanics did in the sixties, removed brake drums and blew asbestos dust all over the workshop. If asbestos is the cause of mesothelioma. I should have died yeas ago. I'm convinced that most of this is disinformation designed to cover up something else. Suggested, but unprovable was the info that "they" could not surveil through asbestos. Well they clearly could not tell everybody to remove the asbestos from their rooves so that they could spy on you so they dreamed up a fear campaign to get folks to do it voluntarily.

Lead paint, when fresh isn't very toxic, unless you're drinking it. The dangers with lead paint are primarily to the workers making it (the huge number of workers getting lead poisoning in paint manufacturing in the early part of the 20th century were the impetus for the first workplace exposure regulations. The other end of the pain life-cycle is the other danger point: when it is old and crumbling and gets turned into stuff you can ingest or inhale.

Asbestos is proven to be a cause of mesothelioma, probably the primary one, but all cancer is a matter of odds.

Consider spraying out those brake drums playing a game of russian roulette with a 10,000 round chamber. You could go for your entire life without catching the loaded one; but the more you spin that chamber, the more likely you'll catch the loaded one. This is why the createst number of cases are in miners and shipbuilders working with the stuff day-in and day-out.

And like the lead paint, the other end of the use, as old, crumbling insulation, roofing and siding is the most dangerous, because then you're being exposed any time you're in the house.

Even a 10,000 round chamber's gonna land on a live round sooner in that scenario.

[NeiljohnUK]

also, like I suspect MANY other mechanics did in the sixties, removed brake drums and blew asbestos dust all over the workshop. If asbestos is the cause of mesothelioma. I should have died yeas ago.

Asbestos related diseases are much more than mesothelioma, and whilst brake dust (ground down asbestos plus the binding gripping resins that actually do the braking, asbestos being a high heat 'carrier') had the potential to cause it, it was much lower risk compared to raw asbestos or the fibrous asbestos used in insulation. My father who worked for Ferodo in the 50's was thought to have ingested asbestos and ended up with an asbestos gut cancer, which was successfully removed but not before it had micro-metastasized (or a tiny fraction got into his blood stream during the operation to remove it), he lived another 30 years before the now in his brain encapsulated tumour caused him to collapse. When removed the tumour was fist sized, and although he was starting to recover the 'old mans friend' (hospital acquired pneumonia) finished him off.

In the UK we have/had an asbestos related death compensation scheme, however it only applied to lung cancers/mesothelioma, so we were unable to claim any compensation for him or his funeral.

How many more tradesmen were exposed to asbestos by ingestion is unknown, but the practice of chewing 'Rawlplastic' rollable asbestos to dampen it before inserting it into holes when hanging shelves etc is thought to have contributed to the high asbestos related death toll amongst builders and other building related trades.