Where can you find asbestos?

Work with any type of asbestos involved is dangerous and a majority of the time it is not always obvious where the asbestos actually is as most is located hidden away from any form of inspection.

 The most common places like these are asbestos cement products, floor tiles, insulating board and surprisingly sprayed coatings on things such as ceilings, walls and beams. asbestos can be found inside and outside of a building and is extremely dangerous to people’s health if not dealt with straightaway.

The amount of damage that asbestos has on a human body depends mostly on the time scale that the person has been exposed to the fibers and also the total number of fibers that have been breathed in.

After a large amount of fibers are breathed in by a human being, asbestos gets to work at damaging vital organs and consequently leads to many human body diseases such as mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis. These kind of diseases result in around 4000 deaths a year.

Of course it is important to consider that these diseases are caused by a long term exposure to asbestos so it is extremely wise to take precautions such as asbestos surveys and asbestos management of your workplace in order to prevent any contracting of an asbestos related disease in the future.

Lagging and insulation is one of the most dangerous materials to contain asbestos for a human being. Although this type may have many different appearances and colours, which make it more difficult to identify, a majority is a fibrous material which flakes easily due to its powder like consistency.

This material is mainly found on heating systems such as pipework or boilers and due to the disturbance of the substance found around these types of materials it means that the dangerous fibers are very easily released into the air that we breathe.

However even more dangerous than asbestos contained in lagging and insulation is loose fill asbestos which is usually found behind cavity walls, loft spaces and commonly under floor boards. Pure asbestos is made to create this material resulting in a huge amount of dangerous fibers in the air if disturbed and therefore breathed in.

If this could be a risk in your own home or workplace the best thing to do is to get it checked it as soon as possible and do not attempt to work on this material unless you are a HSE-licensed contractor.

Although the danger is high with exposure to asbestos, there are some factors which could effect the level of risk to disease a person is. These are factors such as smoking.