The Never-Ending Scourge of Asbestos

Asbestos; mesothelioma [Photograph]. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Library Edition. Retrieved 26 June 2013, from http://library.eb.com.au/eb/art-171564

A recent article in The Age has examined a 'third wave' of victims who have developed malignant mesothelioma after exposure to asbestos.[i] At first it appeared that only the miners and wharfies were affected by this scourge - then tradespeople [ii] started to develop asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma from inhaling asbestos fibres. Now medical specialists are seeing a new wave of sufferers - 'the bystanders', such as women who may have washed their husband's asbestos dust-laden overalls decades earlier. [iii]

 Asbestos, named from the ancient Greek word for 'inextinguishable', was touted as the 'wonder material' of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and used extensively in Australian buildings between 1945 and 1980.[iv]  As a material, it was cheap, strong and heat resistant, and its versatility resulted in it being used in over 3000 products, including insulation, carpet underlay, brake linings, roof tiles and cement sheeting.[v]

Mesothelioma, one of the cancers arising from exposure to asbestos fibres, can take up to 20-40 years to develop.[vi] Many people who develop mesothelioma do not experience any noticable symptoms for a long period of time.[vii] Early signs of pleural mesothelioma include:

• trouble breathing
• long-lasting cough and pain under the rib cage or in the abdomen
• pain while breathing
• weight loss [viii]

To read the article in The Age, login with your library card's barcode to EBSCOhost's Australian and New Zealand Reference Centre, and to read more about mesothelioma login to Consumer Health Complete or Britannica database.


Rayyan.

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[i] Schmidt, L. 2013, 'Still breathing the devil's dust', Age, The (Melbourne), 19 June, Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre, EBSCOhost, viewed 19 June 2013.

 [ii] Ibid.
[iii] Ibid.
[iv] Ibid.
[v] Ibid.
[vi] Smith, N. 2013, ‘Pleural Mesothelioma’, Conditions and Procedures in Brief [report], Consumer Health Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 21 June, 2013.
[vii] Ibid.
[viii] Ibid.

Eid Mubarek (Happy Eid) to Australian Muslims

'Id al-Fitr: father and son in Lahore, Pakistan. [Photograph]. In Encyclopedia Britannica Online Library Edition. Retrieved from http://library.eb.com.au/eb/art-99574

Australian Muslims today celebrated the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha or the 'Feast of Sacrifice', which commerates the Prophet Ibrahim's (Abraham) willingness to sacrifice his son as an act of submission to God. This festival, which is celebrated by Muslims worldwide, also marks the culmination of the Hajj rites at Mina in Saudi Arabia. In Australia, Muslims on this day will pray at the mosque, visit friends and relatives and endeavour to give money/food to the poor and needy.

Eid al-Adha is one of the two Islamic festivals that is held annually, the other being Eid al-Fitr, which celebrates the end of Ramadan (the month of fasting). If you would like to learn more about these festivals, login to the Encylopaedia Britannica Online database, which can be accessed from home (or in the library) with your library card's barcode.

Rayyan.

The Know-It-All

The universe just loves dealing us a number of irritating conundrums. The aunt that insists on pinching your cheeks. The colleague that always calls you 'Bill' even though you've told them a thousand times that your name is 'William'. Perhaps one of the most annoying, the most painful, the most obnoxious would be the know-it-all. Ah yes that dreadful enigma that insists on correcting every grammatical error and delights in explaining to you the differences between African and Indian elephants.
It was a shock to discover that one man, A. J. Jacobs, actually WANTED to become one of these bothersome troves of information. A. J. Jacobs spent one year of his life reading, cover to cover, the 2002 Encyclopædia Britannica - all 32 volumes, all 33,000 pages, all 44 million words - and along the way recorded his journey.
'The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World'.
Another one to add to the LMG collection? Tell us what you think!