Asbestos Could Have Saved WTC Lives

Fox News ^ | Friday, September 14, 2001 | Steven Milloy

[ghostcat]

Asbestos fibers in the air and rubble following the collapse of the World Trade Center is adding to fears in the aftermath of Tuesday

[ghostcat]

Thought provoking.

[litany_of_lies]

More than thought-provoking--Maddening.

I would not be surprised if the terrorists knew about this; after all, it appears that they did years of research. I have wondered why they they didn't hit the buildings at a lower point. It appears that if they had wanted to they could have gone in as low as the 30th or 40th floors. You would ordinarily expect them to hit the building as low as possible, so it will be more likely to topple. You would also be hoping that the fire from the explosion would quickly move up to the top of the building and kill the maximum number of people.

......unless they knew about the info contained in this article.

[rellimpank]

Former Governor of New Jersey and ex-Congressman Jim Florio was the leader of the phoney anti-asbestos crusade. He also was one of the leaders of the anti-firearms faction in Congress--

[Williams]

I'm not sure asbestos would have provided 4 hours of protection following the 1,000 degree jet fuel explosion and fire. The plane crashing through the building obviously compromised many of the steel supports in a more direct manner than an ordinary fire. I heard a GE engineer on tv say that the building supports could not withstand that straight on hit, and that right after the impact he and other engineers concluded the buildings would inevitably fall as a result.

[Andrew Byler]

Can we sue the asbestos lawyers?

[litany_of_lies]

Maybe this will cause the scam artists disguised as lawyers and their so-called plaintiffs, who are in the process of putting Owens Corning, PPG, and Federal-Mogul out of business, will pause and consider what asbestos could be doing FOR us if its use were still allowed.

Nah.

[Mindy11277]

My grandfather died of lung cancer from asbestos. He was around it almost all his life working as a builder/carpenter and at a Boeing plant during WWII. It took years for it to harm him though. He was 89 when he died five years ago.

[litany_of_lies]

My condolences about your father.

[Magician]

The World Trade Center was controversial in design right from the beginning. The WTC does not have the usual honeycomb of boxes of steel girders supporting the building. Instead, a radical new design was used that suspended the floors from vertical steel girders only at the periphery of the building and at it's central core. The floors are supported for hundreds of feet between these verticals on their own steel trusses.

Two weaknesses were identified before the WTC was even built:

1. Failure of a floor truss would collapse that floor, and then initiate a pancaking of the the floors below that would bring down the entire building. This was an obvious factor in bringing down both buildings when upper floors failed.

2. Failure of any significant part of the peripheral girder structure could bring down the building. This was evident (as was pancaking as well) in the collapse of the first building, which initially tilted about 30 degrees when the remaining outer girders of one corner failed.

[Magician]

The World Trade Center was controversial in design right from the beginning. The WTC does not have the usual honeycomb of boxes of steel girders supporting the building. Instead, a radical new design was used that suspended the floors from vertical steel girders only at the periphery of the building and at it's central core. The floors are supported for hundreds of feet between these verticals on their own steel trusses.

Two weaknesses were identified before the WTC was even built:

1. Failure of a floor truss would collapse that floor, and then initiate a pancaking of the the floors below that would bring down the entire building. This was an obvious factor in bringing down both buildings when upper floors failed.

2. Failure of any significant part of the peripheral girder structure could bring down the building. This was evident (as was pancaking as well) in the collapse of the first building, which initially tilted about 30 degrees when the remaining outer girders of one corner failed.

[Jay W]

I'm not sure asbestos would have provided 4 hours of protection following the 1,000 degree jet fuel explosion and fire. The plane crashing through the building obviously compromised many of the steel supports in a more direct manner than an ordinary fire.

Maybe not 4 hours, but if the asbestos could have provided 1 more hour of protection, how many people would be alive today?

[LinnieBeth]

I would not be surprised if the terrorists knew about this...

Remember, bin Laden is a Civil Engineer and the Saudi bin Laden family is very wealthy..wealth gained through construction contracts.

[WyldKard]

The next building to go up when they rebuild the center should probably have an aerogel wrapping for the supports. This stuff is so effective that a quarter inch of insulation would allow you to heat a house with a candle. And since it's just extruded quartz (I think.) there aren't any health issues that I know about.

The only problem would be generating it in large enough quantities, I suppose.

[supercat]

This stuff is so effective that a quarter inch of insulation would allow you to heat a house with a candle.

That doesn't necessarily mean the material would be good at high temperatures. If it is indeed extruded quartz I would expect that a fire like that in the WTC would cause it to quickly fuse and lose most of its insulating value.