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Does anyone know the type of Asbestos used in the make up of MG42/M53 barrel change gloves and whether it poses a health risk by handling them, please? Is there a potential to breath in Asbestos fibres simply by handling these gloves or is the Asbestos somehow "locked" into the fabric. I purchased a Yugo cleaning kit for a M53 which appeared to have one of these gloves, this slightly surprised me, from a U.K. dealer, recently.
Thank-you for any advice on this.
Can't help you there. They were common in the Army but the priority was to keep the gun running, not so much troop health and safety.
There is safe, and then there is Army safe.
It takes years of exposure to Asbestos particulates before one needs to be concerned. It's very common to still find Asbestos in houses around here. Every other house has it as siding "including mine" and the others it was just covered with aluminum or vinyl. Everybody's basement floor is covered with tiles made from it. My first house built in the forties had the original boiler in wrapped in the stuff. I sprayed it with water, bagged it up and out with the regular garbage it went.
You'll be fine as long as you don't chew on the gloves.;)
Pack them up in a sealed plastic bag where they can't release any particulates, bad s**t, I know too many people that have died as a result of working with or around it, in one case a welder friend his wife and son all died within a 4 year time frame as a result of asbestos exposure, her from smashing asbestos insulation off pipe to make tie-in welds and the wife and son from washing coveralls and drying them in the dryer. The smallest particle attached to the inside of your lungs can cause cancer down the road.
"...then there is Army safe..." Like the plain rubber gloves for fueling propane vehicles. snicker.
Asbestos is about breathing the particulates into your lungs. There is no safe way of handling the stuff. That's why houses get completely covered and sealed in plastic when it's removed.
"...out with the regular garbage it went..." That'd get you arrested now.
Asbestos only causes problems when it is dry and handled in a manner which releases airborne particles. Give the glove a good soak in gun oil which will help retain the loose fibres but still give the heat protection. Obviously it is only for use in changing a hot barrel so keep it in a plastic bag and only use it when required.
Its when it becomes friable and releases airborne particulate matter that is respirable in size (Gets past the cilia then into the lungs) if you start smashing the stuff with a hammer or friction saw that's when the issue really arises these particles can penetrate right into the lungs gas exchange alveoli which is where the real damage occurs.
Blue asbestos was mined in West Au at Wittenoom gorge (Now a ghost town) there was an extensive court battle involving the James Hardy Company that they knew the risks posed to the workers from Blue Asbestos it went on for years and allot of the affected workers died before finally the High Court of Australia made the company pay large compensation payments whats the point of money when your stuck to an O2 bottle wheezing away dying a slow death!!!!
Well, I'm 60 and we used those regularly on the .30 cal and .50 cal MGs...and I have no respiratory issues. I was slotted in MG training for ages. I carried them, used them...I don't think you're going to get asbestos lung from an isolated use of a mitt when using an MG for a couple hours...
I spent most of my working life around asbestos and used the same type of glove on my left hand when using a cutting torch. You won't get anything bad off of a glove the problems arise when you breath the dry dust and fibers off of the insolation.
When I was a teenager I worked two summers for a commercial and industrial insulation company, we mixed wheelbarrow loads of asbestos meal into cement to finish elbows on asbestos insulation in refineries, every single one of the journeymen insulators I worked with is dead from mesothelioma. When I finished high school I apprenticed as a steamfitter and go my high pressure pipe welding certificate. During plant turnarounds we used to smash the pipe insulation off with hammers to break flanges and cut pipe for welded tie ins, we rolled in the dust from this crap while performing welds on scaffolding, suddenly in the 80's they started sealing in the pipe to strip it and the insulators were dressed like spacemen. Say what you wish about the level of exposure it takes but truth be known it only takes one fiber in the wrong spot to start your demise. I have lost numerous friends in the trade to this killer including my father in law. Pack the s**t away in a plastic bag and by yourself a modern barbecue mitt, no sense playing Russian roulette with asbestos!
1 O M there is also the fact of the contaminated clothing you wore coming home with fibres that expose family members to it as well the dam stuff is just plain nasty in the power station I was in the older 60's section of it was riddled with the stuff in the form of gaskets we had a transportable decon unit for people to go to if they were exposed to it no chances taken or refusals into the trailer you go to get deconned.
There is friable asbestos and non-friable asbestos. Friable is the stuff found as insulation around pipes, etc, non-friable is the hard stuff usually used as tiles and siding. non-friable is not considered a hazardous material and can be treated as normal trash. Friable is to be double bagged and labeled but still goes to the same landfill as far as I know. Left undisturbed, not really hazardous in either state but mess with it and create dust and you have a problem. Lot of buildings still have pipes insulated with it. I would dispute one particle being a cause for cancer, as with every other cancer causing substance, it tends to be the amount you are exposed too. If one particle did you in, most of us would be dead just from going to elementary school. I have no desire to mess with it in any case. It is on the exterior of my house under the vinyl siding and that I'm not too concerned with.
I was taught when I was OSHA certified that the big problem with asbestos, when compared to most other carcenogens, was that there was not a clear exposure limit. Lower exposure could be as hazardous as very high
exposure.
Carrying and using the GPMG M60 also included the No2 carrying the "Golf Bag" with the asbestos glove and spare barrel. Thousands of soldiers in the Australian army would have used it.
When I was a kid we used to smash up the asbestos wall sheeting to throw as frizbees. Guess it is luck. Helped my Dad with asbestos repairs as well.
used to have rock battles with the neighbor kids when i was small. ran out of rocks. picked up a piece of house siding, and threw it like a frizbee . it hit its mark. cut the neighbor kid across his face. i ran inside and hid under the bed. he caught me walking home from school and beat the **** out of me.so see asbestos is danger est to your health .
That reminds me, back in the 1980's my Grandfather bought a vehicle shop building from CFB Cornwallis and had it floated to his nearby property.
He warned us kids about the asbestos side shingle but we broke them off and threw them at each other anyway.
I did read an article in a respectable magazine some years ago that published on the topic. It examined a (then failed) Canadian asbestos mine, workers and the nearby population. It concluded that aside from extreme exposure cases, Asbestos had been excessively demonized by the OH&S industry.
Most folks treat Asbestos with greater fear than radioactivity these days.
That was quite an amusing one liner, Darren, made me laugh.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sentryduty
Where Asbestos was used in the building trade for such items as roof sheeting and other solid items like pipes, it was my understanding that the Asbestos was held together with a type of cement and this was one of the safe forms? The main risks here, I understood to be when it was cut or disturbed?