Guidelines to Consider When Identifying Asbestos in your Home

Along with its heat resistance, fire resistance, chemical resistance, and insulating qualities, asbestos was frequently utilised in building in the late 1800s. However, it has been prohibited in several continents, including Australia, because of the health dangers connected with continuous contact with the substance.

When asbestos fibres are breathed, they cause respiratory and digestive system damage, as well as mesothelioma, asbestosis, and lung cancer. Even a little amount of asbestos fibre exposure can be harmful to your health, which is why the Australian government imposed a blanket ban on the use of asbestos on December 31, 2003.

However, identifying asbestos might be difficult if you don’t know what it looks like, how to remove it, or what precautions to take. In this article, we will go over everything you need to know about asbestos in depth.

What is asbestos? 

Asbestos actually refers to six distinct minerals grouped into two families – serpentine and amphibole.

Serpentine asbestos is composed of curled fibres encased in sheets of crystals. The single kind of asbestos in the serpentine family, chrysotile, accounts for about 95 per cent of all asbestos products used globally. Amphibole asbestos consists of needle-shaped fibres. 

According to studies, even minor exposure to amphibole asbestos might represent a substantially larger danger than serpentine asbestos. However, all kinds of asbestos are proven carcinogens, and there is no such thing as safe asbestos exposure.

How to Identify asbestos? 

Asbestos identification is not always simple. Without the proper knowledge and expertise, identifying an asbestos sheet may be challenging, and it is not always feasible to detect if an item contains asbestos merely by looking at it.

Asbestos fibres are so small that they are nearly undetectable to the human eye. If you think a substance contains asbestos, an asbestos technician can sample and analyse it. Having said that, in a few cases, it is possible to positively detect asbestos.

Guidelines to consider while checking for asbestos

• Identify the material used

You can identify if the building has asbestos by checking the manufacturer and product name on the insulation label if you have access to the proper papers, then conduct some research into the product to discover if it includes asbestos. If the manufacture label contains a date between 1940 and 1980, it is more likely to contain asbestos.

However, even if the structure is relatively new, it is still vital to do a brief asbestos inspection since some of the materials removed throughout those years may have been recycled and utilised in subsequent construction.

To readily detect asbestos in a structure, it is necessary to first understand where it is commonly located. Asbestos fibres are commonly found in various materials such as:

• Cement sheets: Because of their great heat resistance, cement sheets are frequently used for roofs.
• Vinyl tiles: Since asbestos is waterproof, this sort of tile is widely used in bathrooms, pipelines, and other damp locations.
• Sprayed coatings: They are commonly used on walls; they are the most harmful of all asbestos-containing products because they degrade quickly and are easily breathed.
•  Take an asbestos sample

Asbestos should be removed as soon as possible. A mere visual check is not always sufficient. It is advised to get items tested or to obtain a sample of the materials to be tested for asbestos content. Obtaining asbestos samples is best left to the specialists, and the following precautions must be taken in order to properly retrieve a sample for testing:

• Make sure there are no dogs or children in the area where the sample will be obtained.
• Asbestos is harmful if breathed, swallowed, or enters the human body, hence gloves, masks, and protective eyewear are recommended.
• Combine water and a little amount of detergent in a spray bottle; this will be used to dampen the sample about to be removed in order to minimise the release of airborne asbestos fibre.
• To be comprehensive, use proper instruments to collect the material; it is recommended that all layers of the substance be sampled.
• Fill a zip-lock plastic bag halfway with the material and seal it; double the zip-lock bag to ensure that the stuff does not spill.
• Submit the gathered sample to a NATA-accredited asbestos testing facility.
• Hire an asbestos removal service

Asbestos may lurk in a variety of places, therefore it is best to leave the asbestos inspection to the professionals. You may obtain cheap asbestos removal from specialists who have detection equipment to determine whether or not asbestos is present in the structure.

Some of the asbestos detecting equipment includes:

Handheld Spectroscopy: This portable gadget utilises light to assess the presence of asbestos.

Magnetic Field: To assess asbestos content, this portable gadget employs lasers and magnets.

If you find any signs of asbestos material in your house, the first thing you should do is avoid disturbing it. If you handle, disrupt, move, or destroy asbestos-containing insulation, asbestos fibres will become airborne. The best course of action is to call for a professional asbestos removalist to collect a sample, confirm your identification and securely remove the materials.

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