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NAGOYAA - A device to smash asbestos into harmless pieces has been developed. This was announced Friday by an academic and industrial alliance. According to their claim, this is the first device for this purpose.
The research group from the Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advance Materials at Tohoku University, the Radical Planet Research Institute and Sumitomo Heavy Industries Techno-Fort Co says that the process is simpler and less costly than the widely practiced thermal treatment method.
Thermal treatment method is the widely adopted method at the moment in which asbestos is melted in furnaces. The consortium says that this involves labor and maintenance expenses resulting from the inside of furnaces melting in reaction to the asbestos or the removal of slight amounts of asbestos remaining in exhaust gases.
The researchers claim that the device can solve this issue once and for all. According to them, decrystallized material can be used an alternative to cement.
The device is airtight. It's size is 3.8 x 3.8 x 4 meters. It contains 100 iron balls each 10 centimeters across and weighing 4 kilograms.
The working of the device is simple. Asbestos is put into the container. The iron balls which are spinning in high speed smash the needle-shaped crystals of the material into decrystallized pieces.
Asbestos is a combination of several minerals that separate into long, threadlike fibers. Because they do not bum, do not conduct heat or electricity, and are very resistant to chemicals, these minerals are often used for making fireproof materials, electrical insulation, roofing, filters, etc. Asbestos can cause severe health hazards. The small, buoyant fibers are easily inhaled or swallowed, causing a number of serious diseases including: asbestosis, a chronic disease of the lungs that makes breathing more and more difficult; cancer; and mesothelioma, a cancer (specific to asbestos exposure) of the membranes that line the chest and abdomen.
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