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History of Asbestos

Asbestos has been used for thousands of years and because of it’s soft cloth like features was used by ancient societies as napkins and other personal garments. But over the course of time even these ancient Greek and Roman societies recognized the harmful effects that Asbestos inflicted on people but in many cases chose to ignore it.  The broad use of Asbestos declined probably out of individual fear of the “Sickness of the lungs” as it was called. However the use of it reappeared several times throughout history and was really brought into focus in the early 20th century when it was diagnosed as “Asbestosis”. Modification in the handling of the product was introduced about this time and continued up until the early 80’s when it was restricted for use in North America. Asbestos has not been banned in North America but is now a controlled substance under the Hazardous Products Act.

Steps were then incorporated to have Asbestos that was used prior to this in buildings to be removed based on a set of health exposure related guidelines.  The Alberta Government introduced the “Alberta Asbestos Abatement Manual” in the spring of 2007 on the safe handling and removal of building materials and products containing Asbestos.

For more information search “History of Asbestos”

Uses of Asbestos

Because of the high degree of heat that Asbestos can tolerate it made a very useful component in the prevention and spread of fire.  It was expressed as one of the greatest advancements to fire safety, but little did we as consumers know that the very thing that was protecting us could cause ill effects down the road. Asbestos used in residential and commercial buildings was incorporated into products like:

  1/ vinyl flooring
  2/ flooring underlay
  3/ ceiling stipple
  4/ pipe insulation for hot water lines and heating pipes
  5/ wrap in areas of combustion
  6/ insulation
  7/ Zonolite or vermiculite used in attics and cinderblock walls as insulation
  8/ exterior siding
  9/ roofing shingles
10/ gaskets on heating equipment
11/ electrical insulators
12/ paint
13/ gloves and other fire retardant clothing
14/ brake pads on vehicles

Danger of Asbestos

There are 3 known types of Asbestos, Chrysotile, Amosite, & Crocidolite.   Under a 100 times Light Microscopy microscope Chrysotile appears curly in nature, whereas Amosite and Crocidolite are very straight and needle like.

Very detailed research into the Asbestosis phenomenon revealed the real problem with Asbestos and led to restrictions in it’s use.  Asbestos that is intact is not as much a problem as disturbed Asbestos. The concern with Asbestos is the more it is disturbed the finer the slivers that break off into extremely small fibers that make their way into the air that we breath.  This is called Friability.  These fibers can be 300 times smaller than a human hair.  These microscopic fibers make their way into the air and can take as long as 500 days to settle out of air that is still.  Combine that with constant air movement and the total number of days for these to settle could increase exponentially. Even if they do settle out they could easily be reintroduced into the air stream with little air movement. 

Asbestos fibers lodge in the linings of lungs and other mucus membranes and cause scar tissue to form as the metabolism tries to excrete the foreign body.  However the jagged shards of Asbestos become snagged in the linings and do not move.  This does not mean that every shard of asbestos fiber will cause harm.   Once this scar tissue develops it can, but not in all cases, slowly cause Asbestosis, lung cancer, Mesothelioma, & other cancers related to Asbestos in the larynx, trachea, stomach, colon, & rectum. Research has shown the presence of Asbestos in cancerous tissues in patients with Asbestosis related illnesses.

Individuals with active lifestyles seem to fair somewhat better than those being more sedentary, but this is not always the case.  Smoking cigarettes increases the harmful effects of Asbestosis by approximately 600%. Once Asbestosis is established in the lungs it becomes untreatable and most victims die within the first year of diagnosis. 

Real Estate & Asbestos

This is a problem for older homes that contain asbestos. Real estate deals can flatten simply because of the word asbestos which is unfortunate It is important to understand that asbestos is really not a problem unless it is disturbed.  There is enough hype and excitement because of asbestos and it is well know that if you knowingly have a home with asbestos in it you should use precautions when entering these spaces containing vermiculite. Whether the insulation is vermiculite, asbestos tape, asbestos mud, or sheet form, disturbing it can create the problem, not the fact that it is asbestos.  You should use some sort of respiratory protection any time you enter an attic or confined spaces with any type of insulation. The professionals do, so why wouldn’t you. These spaces can contain airborne particulate like glass fibers, bacteria, parts of insects, mould, and many other things that you would not want to breath. So a little common sense is needed here. Is it necessary to rid your home of asbestos vermiculite?  It is a preference decision. Like it was mentioned earlier, if it is undisturbed then it is not a concern. If you are renovating, then it can become a concern as these fibers can become air borne, so you may want to include removing it in your renovation budget.  If all you do is live in the home then why would it concern you?  Some people feel better having the asbestos sealed with an encapsulate where this is applicable, which is completely safe, while others feel better having it removed completely.

The asbestos is not so much the problem during real estate transactions, but rather whether you are obligated to disclose whether the building you are selling contains asbestos or not. Inspectors, real estate agents, appraisers, and many others involved in the transactions of real estate are afraid to even mention asbestos, let alone acknowledge it exists.

There needs to be a standardized template designed to encompass how buildings containing asbestos are handled during real estate transactions. It is the goal of this company to lead the way in creating a standard methodology related to asbestos and real estate transactions.

Testing For Asbestos

There are no regulations surrounding the collection, testing, methods of sampling, but there are suggested methods of collecting as by preference by different labs.  There are problems associated with testing for asbestos, particularly with Zonolite that came from mines that had asbestos in it. Not all forms of vermiculite insulation called Zonolite contained asbestos as they came from mines that had no veins of asbestos while mining the product. The fact that a particular mine did have asbestos in the vermiculite does not automatically guarantee that there is asbestos in the vermiculite insulation as the veins of asbestos that ran through the area were not constant. Testing of asbestos in vermiculite for this company has shown that it ranges from 20% to 60% content of the vermiculite using 100X light microscopy. Testing of other vermiculite samples reveals no detection using the same equipment, and further analyzing it with higher magnification equipment revealed the same result. 

There are several methods of testing for asbestos but the 2 main ways are using 100X light microscopy and TEM which is 1000X magnification.