Many production workers and managers engaged in the fiberglass industry talk about fiberglass, and many people are confused, especially on sunny days, the factory buildings under the sun are flying with shiny fiberglass threads, which makes people even more scared!
They are worried that fiberglass will cause silicosis or even cancer asbestos and other mineral fibers! Is fiberglass that scary?
1. As we all know, asbestos is a widely used industrial material, a natural mineral fiber.
It has become a consensus in the world today that asbestos is harmful to human life and health. It has become a trend to restrict and prohibit the use of asbestos. So, does fiberglass, which is similar to asbestos in performance and form, pose a hazard to people's health?
The legendary fiberglass "will stick to the intestines when eaten, will it be life-threatening"? Will it cause cancer like asbestos? Will it cause silicosis like asbestos causes asbestosis? Will it cause other diseases in the human body?
Scientific and technological workers from all over the world have already conducted a lot of in-depth research on this, and the conclusion is consistent. The answer is "no"!
Since there is little research and insufficient reports on such issues in my country, it is normal for many people in the industry, especially grassroots workers, to have many doubts about this. After all, no one will joke about their health!
2. First of all, this is because although asbestos and glass fiber are very similar in appearance, shape, performance, and use, they have different components and structures.
Asbestos fiber is a crystalline fiber, while glass fiber is an amorphous non-crystalline structure. Asbestos fiber can be cracked into finer fibers along the axial direction, which is crucial to human health.
Glass fiber generally refers to glass fiber made from silicate melt in the form of filaments, such as continuous glass fiber with a diameter of 3 to 25 μm, mainly 6 to 15 μm (6 to 13 μm in my country). Glass fiber is not a crystalline structure and cannot be cracked into finer fibers along the axial direction, but most of these fibers are brittle (especially coarse fibers) and are easily broken into shorter fibers under stress.
Asbestos is a natural inorganic crystalline mineral fiber. The diameter of asbestos fiber is generally only 0.02-2μm. Since asbestos is a crystalline fiber, once it is subjected to external force, it may crack into thinner fibers along the axial direction.
When we breathe air at work, some longer glass fibers floating in the air will be filtered by the nasal hair and mucous membrane of the nose, bronchi, and trachea, which means that not all glass fibers floating in the air will be inhaled into the human body.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and many experts in the world, after long-term experimental research, they all believe that the minimum diameter of the fiber inhaled by the human body should be less than 3μm, and its aspect ratio is greater than 5:1. It is generally believed that fibers with a length of more than 200-250μm will not be inhaled into the deep lungs of the human body. Some experts believe that fibers with a length of more than 100μm are almost impossible to be inhaled into the deep lungs of the human body.
That is to say, commonly used continuous glass fibers (diameter 6-13μm) cannot be inhaled into the deep lungs of the human body; that is, from the perspective of the physical form and geometric size of the fiber, glass fibers are difficult to be inhaled into the deep lungs of the human body.
During the drawing process of continuous glass fiber, the surface of the new fiber is coated with a wetting agent, then wound onto the original fiber tube and sent to the subsequent process for processing.
The wetting agent is a water solution that protects the new fiber during the drawing operation, so generally, no short fibers will enter the space.
There are not many glass fiber breaks and hair edges during its processing and use. In these ambient air, the concentration of glass fiber is very low. Generally, there is less than one fiber in 1 cubic centimeter of air volume. Moreover, due to the fiber diameter range of 6 to 13 μm, the fiber is thick and has a faster sedimentation rate in the air, which makes it stay in the air for a shorter time. Compared with asbestos, the concentration of glass fiber is hundreds of times smaller.
Due to the low concentration of glass fiber in the air, the probability of glass fiber being inhaled into the human lungs is very small.
3. Secondly, we need to understand how long glass fiber can exist in the lungs once it is inhaled deep into the lungs?
Of course, the shorter the time the glass fiber stays in the human body, the better.
The length of time that glass fiber exists deep in the human lungs depends on the chemical stability of the glass fiber, that is, its ability to resist erosion by lung fluid, which plays a very important role in its potential biological effects.
Glass fiber is an amorphous silicate material containing different metal oxides and non-metal oxides with SiO2 as the main component.
As the glass fiber is formed by drawing, the new ecological fiber will form some microcracks on the surface of the glass fiber cylinder due to thermal stress. In addition, the surface of the glass fiber contains some cations and is hydrophilic, so these fibers are easily infiltrated by lung fluid in the lung fluid.
As can be seen from the table: Asbestos completely dissolves in about 300 years, and no one in the world has lived to 150 years old so far. That is to say, once asbestos fiber is inhaled deep into the human lungs, it will accompany a person throughout his life until he enters the grave. However, once glass fiber is inhaled deep into the human lungs, it will be dissolved and absorbed by the human lung fluid in just a few months. Therefore, glass fiber does not harm human life!
4. The United States studied 4,864 workers in 6 glass factories and investigated the deaths in the past 30 to 35 years.
A similar investigation was also conducted on 6,585 workers in 2 factories that produced both glass wool and continuous glass fiber. It was found that the risk of lung cancer death among these workers was not significantly different from the predicted results for people living in the same area, and the observed lung cancer risk was related to the exposure time.
It had nothing to do with the time since the first exposure or the cumulative time of exposure to glass fiber. The lung cancer mortality rate of factory workers with continuous glass fiber did not significantly exceed the local lung cancer mortality rate, and it had nothing to do with the exposure time or cumulative exposure time.
Therefore, it is once again proved that glass fiber will not harm human life! So when facing glass fiber, there is no need to talk about "glass" color change!
5. Of course, although glass fiber will not harm human life, most of the fibers are relatively thick, which will cause mechanical stimulation to human skin, eyes, trachea, and bronchi, and may cause erythema in some people.
The sensitivity of this stimulation varies from person to person. Generally, professional production workers are much less sensitive to this stimulation than non-professional production workers. It is different from various industrial dermatitis. This stimulation usually disappears in a few days.
Nevertheless, this mechanical stimulation reduces human comfort and worsens production conditions. Therefore, in the production section where glass fiber dust is generated, hand paste operation, FRP injection molding, etc., FRP enterprises should add dust prevention and dust removal facilities to minimize the fiber dust content in the ambient air.
On the other hand, enterprises should strengthen the individual protection of workers. After all, enterprises are the "public tools" of society. While creating wealth, don't forget corporate social responsibility! Be a conscientious enterprise! Protecting the health of workers and creating a harmonious environment is the obligation of every responsible enterprise.
