> 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=