Geological processes involving heat and pressure create asbestos. The minerals crystalize into two main structural families called serpentines and amphiboles. Chrysotile is white asbestos and belongs to the serpentine group.
It has curly, flexible fibers used for most commercial asbestos products. The amphibole group includes crocidolite and amosite. These are blue and brown asbestos.
These types have rigid, needle-like crystalline structures. Asbestos resists heat, chemical damage, and physical stress very well. This extreme durability makes the fibers highly dangerous inside the human body.
Old asbestos materials easily crumble into a hazardous dust called friable asbestos. Microscopic fibers float in the air during demolition or construction work. People inhale these airborne fibers deep into their lower lung tissue.
The fibers stick firmly in the lung tissue and the chest lining. The human immune system cannot break these tough mineral fibers down. White blood cells try to destroy the fibers but completely fail.
This biological failure causes chronic and persistent inflammation in the lungs. The cells release reactive oxygen molecules that damage nearby cellular DNA. This hidden cellular damage continues silently for 10 to 50 years.
Doctors call this long delay the clinical latency period. The damage eventually causes severe lung scarring called asbestosis. It also causes lung cancer and can trigger a disease called mesothelioma.
Mesothelioma is an aggressive and fatal cancer of the protective lung lining. Smoking tobacco makes the asbestos lung cancer risk much worse. Most developed nations now strictly ban all asbestos mining and manufacturing.