There is asbestos trouble in Congress — and it’s not a piece of contested legislation. A historic congressional office building was closed due to asbestos issues until further notice.

On October 30, congressional representatives and their staffs evacuated the Cannon House Office Building due to concerns related to a possible asbestos leak. The possible contamination happened during renovation related to the Cannon Renewal Project. Asbestos exposure concerns caused Congress to flee the building.

Previously, the House side of the Capitol Building was temporarily closed for similar asbestos exposure concerns back in 2014. This asbestos incident stemmed from another incident involving decades-old asbestos fibers.

Asbestos exposure can lead to a wide variety of diseases, including asbestos lung cancer, mesothelioma, asbestosis and a wide variety of lung disease and other asbestos cancer. In fact, the prestigious medical journal The Lancet published an estimate of the global burden from asbestos exposure, which included more than 194,000 deaths in 2013. Upsettingly, this is 80% higher than estimates from the World Health Organization from the same era. Though the EPA has banned most asbestos products, and most uses for asbestos, it is still prevalent in older buildings, like the Cannon Building.

Asbestos in older buildings like the Cannon Building is a major concern. After the Industrial Revolution, asbestos came into widespread use due to its useful properties, namely providing fireproof insulation. In older buildings, asbestos was used as insulation, felted into fabrics that wrapped pipes, mixed into cement and ceramics, and sprayed into the hollows of walls.

In most cases, asbestos locked into the building materials is not a significant issue, because the asbestos fibers are not in the air. However, remodeling work like the Cannon Renewal Project can disturb asbestos, stirring the microscopic fibers into the air where they can work their way into lungs and cause asbestos lung cancer.

As such, even asbestos placed decades, or even more than a century ago, may remain a concern. Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral with tiny glasslike fibers mined from the earth. As an inorganic compound, asbestos can sit, inert, nearly indefinitely without changing its cancer-causing properties.

The inorganic mineral’s same fireproof, insulated properties make it indefinitely potent, and asbestos installed decades ago may cause as much harm as asbestos freshly mined. As such workers may be exposed to asbestos when remodeling homes may suffer asbestos exposure that could lead to asbestos lung cancer or other disease.

Asbestos lung cancer lawsuits allege that the makers of asbestos-bearing products, and employers that exposed their employees to asbestos-laden workplace, knowingly put their employees in situations where they could suffer asbestos exposure. Medical science has known that asbestos exposure could cause asbestos lung cancer and other diseases since the turn of the last century.

Lawsuits alleging asbestos lung cancer typically seek to recoup the cost of medical care for asbestos lung cancer, compensation for pain and suffering, wrongful death benefits, and other costs allegedly stemming from asbestos lung cancer due to asbestos exposure. Asbestos lawsuits have set records for multi-million dollar settlements, and multi-billion dollar trusts funds from companies that dealt in asbestos.