> Dumpwinkels verkopen militaire artikelen, nieuw en

> tweedehands. In veel dumpwinkels zijn ook oude

> militaire gasmaskers te koop. De oudere modellen

> kunnen daarbij asbest bevatten in de filterbus.

> Die zijn daardoor een gevaar voor de gezondheid

> van de gebruiker.

>

> Daarover staat een tekst in Wikipedia:

>

> Safety of old gas masks

>

> Gas masks have a limited useful lifespan that is

> related to the absorbent capacity of the filter.

> Once the filter has been saturated with hazardous

> chemicals, it ceases to provide protection and the

> user may be injured.

>

> Most gas masks use sealing caps over the air

> intake to prevent the filter from degrading before

> use, but the protective abilities also degrade as

> the filter ages or if it is exposed to moisture

> and heat.

>

> Very old unused gas mask filters from World War II

> may not be effective at all in protecting the

> user, and can potentially cause harm to the user

> due to long-term changes in the filter chemical

> composition.

>

> World War II gas masks contained blue asbestos in

> their filters, and this material continued to be

> used until at least 1956. Breathing blue asbestos

> in the factories resulted in death from

> mesothelioma of 10% of workers, and between 2.5

> and 3.2 times the normal incidence of lung or

> respiratory cancers.

>

> Some of the gas masks known to contain asbestos

> are the British MK4 and MK5 respirators which were

> issued to the majority of the British army during

> World War II. Current advice is never to wear any

> gas mask of uncertain military origin.

>

> Many scare stories have originated from various

> Russian gas masks and their filters that are now

> common in surplus stores; the GP-5 was often

> considered to have an asbestos filter, however

> like most cold-war masks it only contains

> activated charcoal.

>

> Modern gas masks are quite safe and do not use

> asbestos, but it is still important to be careful

> when using a modern gas mask. Typically masks

> using 40mm connections are more recent design.

> Rubber also degrades with time so new in box

> “Modern type” masks can be cracked and leak.

>

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_mask

>

> Meer websites over dit asbest in oude gasmaskers

> zijn te vinden via Google:

>

http://www.google.nl/search?q=asbestos+military+%22gas+mask%22&hl=nl&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Anl%3Aofficial&prmd=ivnsfd&sa=X&ei=eqRCTa78D8-N4ga61cwe&ved=0CBIQpwUoBg&source=lnt&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A1-1-2009%2Ccd_max%3A&tbm=