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 Post subject: Tiger's Eye safety
PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 12:17 am 
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So I'll start out by saying I'm not into gemology but have started reading and tried to familiarize myself with terminology. I got started mainly from the beauty of rocks.

I had recently seen a tiger's eye bracelet and was looking online to read about its features, then ran into an article showing it contains asbestos. One part of me worried, then the other part of me though "if it wasn't safe, they wouldn't sell them as jewelry."

I've read about 40 articles about tiger's eye, and in my limited knowledge I still cant't conclude much.

1. Are they safe to wear?
2. They have been polished which creates dust. Is the wearer exposed to new areas of the rock which has asbestos?
3. What happens if the wearer chips the rock?


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 Post subject: Re: Tiger's Eye safety
PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 10:54 am 
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Tiger eye poses no threat to the wearer.
If you chip tiger eye then you have a chipped piece of tiger eye, once again no threat to anyone who wears it.

Jim


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 Post subject: Re: Tiger's Eye safety
PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 12:17 pm 
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Asbestos is dangerous as single fibers which get into your lungs and poke your DNA. Tigereye is a mix of asbestos (some fresh some oxidized) and quartz, and it's a solid material that doesn't fray into individual fibers like loose asbestos. I don't think any health risks have been shown from cutting it, though IMO all cab cutting should be done with a respirator on to avoid any silica inhalation.

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 Post subject: Re: Tiger's Eye safety
PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 2:13 pm 
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There is quite a lot of misinformation floating about concerning the dangers of asbestos.

In brown tigereye, all the original asbestos, a variety of crocidolite, has been silicified, which means the asbestos has been replaced with quartz. It is no longer crocidolite. It is a pseudomorph after crocidolite.

Hawkseye, which is the bluish-gray variety is partially silicified crocidolite.
In it's pure form, crocidolite takes the form of blue, straight fibers. It is a sodium iron magnesium silicate, and is considered to be the most dangerous type of asbestos due to its physical properties. The silicification dampers its toxicity.

Mineralogical Society of America wrote:
Asbestos

The solid surface of our Earth is formed of rocks, sediment, and soil, which in turn are composed predominantly of minerals. There are approximately 5,000 different minerals on Earth, each of which has a distinct chemical composition and arrangement of atoms that impart physical and chemical properties and make it unique. Those minerals that can be separated lengthwise into fibers are said to have an asbestiform habit. Different asbestiform minerals have different compositions, atomic arrangements, and physical and chemical properties.

Asbestos is not the name of a mineral. It is an industrial term used for a group of silicate minerals that occur as fibers with a characteristic set of physical properties that typically includes a high tensile strength and resistance to heat and friction. It has been demonstrated that occupational exposure to asbestos can cause a series of asbestos-related diseases. However, these different health effects depend on the particular mineral(s) that forms the asbestos. It is thus incorrect to treat different types of asbestos as identical for purposes of regulation. We urge all those concerned with asbestos issues to consider the particular mineral(s) in question.

The definition of the term "fiber" differs between the mineralogical and regulatory communities, and even differs as a function of the instrumentation used to monitor asbestos in the workplace. Mineralogists use a morphological definition (a thread or filament), whereas regulators typically use a particle’s aspect ratio. For example, one regulatory method would count a particle as a fiber if the particle is three times longer than it is wide. On the basis of either definition, mineral fibers occur throughout Nature and are found in rocks, sediment, soils, and the atmosphere. Most soils and rocks contain at least some minerals with a 3:1 aspect ratio. If the regulatory definition for occupational settings was applied in Nature, then most rocks and soils would contain regulated fibers. Indeed, if all minerals that occur with a 3:1 aspect ratio were dangerous, there would be no safe place on Earth. Clearly, this is not the case. We urge all those concerned with asbestos not to equate natural occurrences of mineral fibers, defined by regulatory criteria, with occupational exposure to asbestos.

Science-based mineral information should be used to guide the development of practices and laws that protect workers and the general public from the risks of asbestos exposure. Mineral information also should be used to reduce concerns that all mineral fibers are the same and to avoid unnecessary regulation, expense, and fear. Scientific societies that are focused on the mineral sciences, such as the Mineralogical Society of America (MSA), should be used as resources for those balancing asbestos concerns. Mineralogists, who are trained to identify and characterize minerals, should provide their expertise to those responsible for regulation of mineral species. Cooperation of regulatory agencies and mineralogists on asbestos policies should lead to policies that appropriately and accurately balance worker safety, public health, and economic development.


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 Post subject: Re: Tiger's Eye safety
PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 5:06 pm 
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(Just as a side-note, they used to think it was a quartz after crocidolite pseudomorph, but that later proved to be a mistake. Thry grow parallel to one another but both remain in place. That said the brown or red coloration indicates some degree of oxidation and likely breakdown of the fibers).

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 Post subject: Re: Tiger's Eye safety
PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 6:28 pm 
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Well, there I go dating myself again. It was 100% accurate when I learned it......around the same time continental drift was a hypothesis.


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 Post subject: Re: Tiger's Eye safety
PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 9:07 pm 
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Barbra Voltaire wrote:
....around the same time continental drift was a hypothesis.


You mean they proved that theory?

Next you will completely reject the possibility that the Earth is flat.....


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 Post subject: Re: Tiger's Eye safety
PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2018 3:09 pm 
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We all know the earth is round but flat on both sides!


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 Post subject: Re: Tiger's Eye safety
PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2018 3:59 pm 
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Morpheus wrote:
We all know the earth is round but flat on both sides!

:-k :smt024
Yep, I googled it. That is absolutely correct.


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 Post subject: Re: Tiger's Eye safety
PostPosted: Sat Dec 15, 2018 1:53 am 
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Hahaha love the answers.

But in all seriousness, if grinding it releases the toxic materials, then technically hasn't the stone reached the layers where the toxic materials are? That's why I was also thinking it was kinda risky.


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 Post subject: Re: Tiger's Eye safety
PostPosted: Sat Dec 15, 2018 4:25 am 
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Stephen Challener wrote:
(Just as a side-note, they used to think it was a quartz after crocidolite pseudomorph, but that later proved to be a mistake. Thry grow parallel to one another but both remain in place. That said the brown or red coloration indicates some degree of oxidation and likely breakdown of the fibers).

So I'm not imagining things when I feel those itchy fibers in the swarf when cabbing it?


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 Post subject: Re: Tiger's Eye safety
PostPosted: Sat Dec 15, 2018 7:18 am 
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I have not experienced that, but I haven't cut much tigereye either. I would be surprised if any single fibers could come out though, as I would assume it is bonded to the quartz rather strongly. But I haven't studied it, and I am not sure it has ever been studied. It doesn't seem to be a subject of great concern but we do live in a world with chrysotile ceiling popcorn and contaminated vermiculite insulation, so it might just not be considered a big enough risk factor on a population scale to study.

Kirr, it isn't toxic in the normal sense. Nothing about the composition of asbestos is poisonous, it is its physical shape that causes problems as it goes into the lungs and can't come out, then starts poking your DNA. If it isn't single needles it doesn't do that. So the question is one of shape.

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 Post subject: Re: Tiger's Eye safety
PostPosted: Sat Dec 15, 2018 3:45 pm 
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Shifter55 wrote:
So I'm not imagining things when I feel those itchy fibers in the swarf when cabbing it?

Yes, I think you are imagining it.
But there are thousands of other things you could be cabbing instead.
Then, you only need to be worried about silicosis.


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 Post subject: Re: Tiger's Eye safety
PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 2:57 am 
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Stephen Challener wrote:
Kirr, it isn't toxic in the normal sense. Nothing about the composition of asbestos is poisonous, it is its physical shape that causes problems as it goes into the lungs and can't come out, then starts poking your DNA. If it isn't single needles it doesn't do that. So the question is one of shape.



Well I was just thinking that as I'm wearing it and typing on my laptop, its rubbing against the metal frame of my laptop or the normal wear and tear.


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 Post subject: Re: Tiger's Eye safety
PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 7:17 am 
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Stephen Challener wrote:
I have not experienced that, but I haven't cut much tigereye either. I would be surprised if any single fibers could come out though, as I would assume it is bonded to the quartz rather strongly. But I haven't studied it, and I am not sure it has ever been studied. It doesn't seem to be a subject of great concern but we do live in a world with chrysotile ceiling popcorn and contaminated vermiculite insulation, so it might just not be considered a big enough risk factor on a population scale to study.

Kirr, it isn't toxic in the normal sense. Nothing about the composition of asbestos is poisonous, it is its physical shape that causes problems as it goes into the lungs and can't come out, then starts poking your DNA. If it isn't single needles it doesn't do that. So the question is one of shape.



I guess I was just thinking about how I'm wearing it and working on my laptop. I got a macbook so its an aluminum body. And I would be rubbing/grinding it all day while I'm typing away.


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