The fine, microscopic fibres in asbestos can become airborne and easily inhaled into the lungs at the slightest disturbance. As a result, these fibres get trapped in the lungs creating ongoing damage, including scar tissue.

Asbestos exposure has been linked to a wide range of adverse and potentially fatal health conditions, including:

Your chances of contracting these diseases from asbestos increase with higher exposure rates, especially in smokers. There are no known safe levels of asbestos exposure. Approximately 700 Australians died from mesothelioma from asbestos exposure in 2018 alone, with numbers expecting to rise over the next few decades.

Asbestos occurs naturally on every continent on Earth, and archeologists have uncovered domestically used asbestos fibres dating back to the stone age some 750,000 years ago. Industrial asbestos mines opened in Canada, South Africa, America, Italy, and Russia in the early 1880s, and the industrial age of asbestos was born.

Concerns were raised about the harmful and potentially fatal effects of exposure to Asbestos dust in a British Royal Commission in the early 1900s; however, the product continued to be used under more stringent safety and ventilation practices in the following decades.
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In 1911, a Royal Commission confirmed the first asbestos-related deaths in Australian gold mine workers. This prompted further safety measures to minimise potential exposure, and by 1927, the term 'asbestosis' was used to describe adverse health conditions relating to asbestos exposure.

Despite health concerns, asbestos products, like weatherboard, were used heavily in Australian residential and industrial construction between the 1920s to the 1990s. However, asbestos use was curbed from 1980 until its subsequent ban.

 During its peak, Australia was one of the biggest importers and users of asbestos, with it being used in millions of Australian houses and over 3000-products, including:

Asbestos can only be removed in Australia by licenced and accredited asbestos removalists.

Silica particles get trapped in the lungs when silica dust is inhaled. Over time, these particles cause lung inflammation that forms nodules and scar tissue in the lung, known as pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive disease that can take 10-30-years to show symptoms.

Like asbestos, people who smoke with silicosis are more likely to develop adverse health conditions and earlier symptoms after exposure.

Silicosis can also create other health complications, including:

Although treatment and management of silicosis are available, there is no cure. Therefore, the best defence against silicosis is protection and prevention.