“At that show I saw a fellow buy a WW2 gas mask for his son, who would be about 9 or 10. “With a background in the NHS, working at the ‘sharp end’ for 30 years, I was surprised that blue asbestos was sold without restriction after visiting a militaria show in Liverpool. John Wilson has tried to raise awareness of the potential dangers to collectors. There is usually a long delay between first exposure to asbestos and the onset of disease. There is no cure for asbestos-related diseases. This number is expected to go on rising at least until 2016. Past exposure to asbestos currently kills around 4,000 people a year in Great Britain. Asbestos is only a risk to health if asbestos fibres are released into the air and breathed in. Why is asbestos dangerous? The Health & Safety Executive website warns: “Breathing in air containing asbestos fibres can lead to asbestos-related diseases, mainly cancers of the lungs and chest lining. The health risks from asbestos used in gas mask filters – chrysotile (white asbestos) for civilian respirators and crocidolite (blue asbestos) for those equipping the armed forces – only came to light post-war when factory workers making the masks started showing abnormally high numbers of deaths from cancer. However these collectable items, found at just about every militaria fair, may conceal a hidden danger from asbestos as the filter degrades releasing fibres into the mask and its container.Īnd now this is not the only risk to buyers and sellers – a recent EU regulation called REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of Chemicals) makes it illegal to sell or transfer any items containing asbestos. One can only hazard a guess at how many millions were manufactured but a company in Blackburn, Lancashire had a contract from the government in 1936 to make 70 million and production continued throughout the war. After the widespread use of poison gas in the Great War it was expected that gas would also be a major factor in WWII so civilians as well as military personnel were provided with gas masks.
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