Fishing Gear and Health Risks

[Keta]

Didn't some scientist die a horrific death playing with mercury with her hands? You have got to be made out of iron.

More like lard.

Marie Curie died from radium but I have never heard of anyone dying from liquid METALLIC mercury poisoning.  Organic mercury and fumes are highly toxic.

They let you play with mercury back in the day? How did you get it? I don't reckon the toy store would just have a couple of vials lying around.

Where do all the asbestos horror stories come from? Every time I search about asbestos on social media there's a lot of people sharing about how someone died painfully from asbestos-induced cancer.

I have a 20# bottle of mercury my sock drawer now.  When I was 12 I was dissolving it in nitric acid to recover gold, I recovered the mercury by dissolving aluminum foil in the acid.

Most asbestos health problems were caused by exposure to massive amounts of airborne fibers or naturally occurring fibers in drinking water.

Do not let anything here cause you to do stupid things but do not believe everything you are told, especial from the government. Be safe and smart around asbestos, as well as any other chemicals.

And always be careful around dihydrogen monoxide, it kills far more people than asbestos and is found everywhere.

[Keta]

.If I were to take the California warning labels seriously I would have to give up fishing...

just move to Arizona or New Mexico, they dont have the tons of laws and restrictions of California.

I live 20 miles north of the border, the OR/CAL border, and often wonder if things "Known to Cause Cancer in the State of California" might not know where the border is.

[steelfish]

glad your are safe living 20 miles away from Cali, good move.

[day0ne]

I'm 76 and still fishing offshore. I also played with mercury as a kid. It sure made nickels look pretty. I also washed greasy hands in whatever solvent was handy. Using most social media is probably the worst way to search for asbestos problems. (not talking about here) There is a boatload of misinformation on the web. Some people seem to like to induce fear. Are there dangers out in the real world? Yes. You could fall in the water fishing and drown. Does this mean you should stop fishing? Your decision but I vote NO.

[Lunker Larry]

Asbestos issues I think primarily arose from installers and demolition or removal. It was used as a fire retardant: sprayed on ceilings etc or used to wrap pipes in buildings or ships et al. Navy ships had it on everything. Not an issue unless disturbed.
Remember, it provided a tremendous safety function and was everywhere until Asbestos is raised its head.

[wailua boy]

I think the drag discs aren't pure asbestos and your chance of exposure is very low.

[Barishi]

Thanks for the responses guys. I'm not so afraid of the drag discs as I once was, I started this thread because I thought it was absurd that nobody batted an eye to handling lead on a regular basis and the cancer warning labels on all fishing tackle. I remember when I was a complete novice sorting through hooks at the tackle store till I could find one without the cancer logo. If I'm not wrong, that warning is for all items that have not been proven to not cause cancer?

The organic mercury death case is about a scientist named Karen Wetterhahn who died horribly by spilling 2 drops of the stuff on her hand. Marie Curie's case is radium poisoning. Back in the 20s and 30s the dangers of radium certainly weren't well known for most people.

The radium girls come to mind. Pretty scary what they did with the stuff knowing what we know today. Guess there's a reason everybody today is living longer.

[Brewcrafter]

And keep in mind I believe many a GI contracted issues from turning their watch inside out (watch face directly against skin) so that they would not be emitting light at night that could give away their position.  The choice being lead poisoning in the form of high velocity pellets vs. radiation that nobody understood at the time. 
Doing a brake or clutch job?  Blowing everything with compressed air probably a bad idea....But one of my pet peeves in gardening circles is that folks think Diatomaceous Earth is a panacea for pest issues, and is "harmless".  As a guy who used to work with it all the time - probably just as hazardous as asbestos - fine particles that once inhaled our lungs cannot get rid of, and float in the air in suspension as fine dust. 
As far as mercury in elementary school (I'm that old) we had "quicksilver" that the teacher would do demonstrations with, and it was pretty easy to get, for example when you sent away for a "Science Lab Kit" that you found in the ad section of Boy's Life magazine....

[Keta]

The ORGANIC mercury death case is about a scientist named Karen Wetterhahn who died horribly by spilling 2 drops of the stuff on her hand.

ORGANIC mercury is not metalic mercury.


This is why people are living longer booring lives.

[Midway Tommy]

If you live in a house that was built or remodeled between 1940 and the mid 1990s chances are pretty high that you are living in the midst of some form of asbestos. All drywall and drywall joint compounds prior to about 1990 or so was fortified with asbestos. Drywallers, tapers and sanders were well know for having asbestos complications. Heck, even linoleum and its glue were fortified with asbestos. The big asbestos shakeup in homebuilding materials came around 1989. It took a little while before asbestos was completely removed from the materials but it's still in all those houses built and remodeled prior to that time frame.

[Lunker Larry]

If you live in a house that was built or remodeled between 1940 and the mid 1990s chances are pretty high that you are living in the midst of some formal asbestos. All drywall and drywall joint compounds prior to about 1990 or so was fortified with asbestos. Drywallers, tapers and sanders were well know for having asbestos complications. Heck, even linoleum and its glue were fortified with asbestos. The big asbestos shakeup in homebuilding materials came around 1989. It took a little while before asbestos was completely removed from the materials but it's still in all those houses built and remodeled prior to time frame.

Ah, not an issue. The lead paint holds it all in place. 😜😅

[Keta]

Too many "voters" ate paint chips when they were kids.

[JasonGotaProblem]

Here's the thing. Y'all handled mercury and worked with all the other stuff we know to be careful with. And you're still here. Thankfully.

But can all your classmates say the same?

[Barishi]

If you live in a house that was built or remodeled between 1940 and the mid 1990s chances are pretty high that you are living in the midst of some formal asbestos. All drywall and drywall joint compounds prior to about 1990 or so was fortified with asbestos. Drywallers, tapers and sanders were well know for having asbestos complications. Heck, even linoleum and its glue were fortified with asbestos. The big asbestos shakeup in homebuilding materials came around 1989. It took a little while before asbestos was completely removed from the materials but it's still in all those houses built and remodeled prior to time frame.

Ah, not an issue. The lead paint holds it all in place. 😜😅

Lead in the paint
Lead in the makeup
Asbestos in the walls
In the pipes, the cars
CFCs in the sprays
Arsenic in the glue
Mercury in the toys

What a time to be alive.
To be fair though, no exposure beats not enough exposure.

[ourford]

I imagine you could remove the washers with the spool submerged in water. Just a thought.