Asbestos Basics for Restorers
By Ron Gines
This is a first in a planned series of blogs about Asbestos. Stay tuned for future blog entries about asbestos testing and abatement. To kick it off, let’s start with the basics.
ASBESTOS
A naturally ocurring mineral
WHAT IS ASBESTOS?
Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral found throughout the world.
When asbestos is mined and processed it separates easily into fibers. Each visible fiber is composed of millions of microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the air by abrasion and other processes. If inhaled or ingested, these microscope fibers pose a significant health risk. Asbestos becomes very dangerous when it is said to be ‘friable’. Friable asbestos is asbestos containing material that can be crumbled, pulverized, or reduced to power by hand pressure. Meaning, you can put it in your hand and easily crush it when you squeeze your hand closed. Friable asbestos is dangerous because tiny asbestos fibers can easily become airborne.
Asbestos fibers are flexible and have very high tensile strength. Asbestos is heat resistant, incombustible, and friction, chemical, bacterial, biological, and water resistant. It’s also plentiful and easily processed, making it an inexpensive construction material and additive.
Asbestos was commonly used in a variety of building materials and construction applications
In the construction industry, asbestos is found in building materials such as:
• sprayed-on fireproofing
• pipe insulation
• floor tiles
• vinyl sheet flooring (in the paper backing)
• mastic (floor glue)
• cement pipe and sheet
• roofing felts and shingles
• ceiling tiles
• fire-resistant drywall
• drywall joint compounds
• acoustical products
Because very few asbestos containing products are being installed today, most worker exposures occur during the removal of asbestos and when asbestos containing materials are disturbed.
THE DANGERS OF ASBESTOS EXPOSURE
Asbestos fibers enter the body when a person inhales or ingests it. Asbestos fibers can be as small as 1 / 700th the width of a hair. The human body’s normal filtering mechanisms cannot filter these unwanted pollutants, and the body is not able to remove fibers embedded within the tissue of the respiratory or digestive systems.
Exposure to asbestos can cause disabling or fatal diseases such as, 1) asbestosis, an emphysema-like condition, 2) lung cancer, 3) mesothelioma, a cancerous tumor that spreads rapidly in the cells of membranes covering the lungs and body organs, and 4) gastrointestinal cancer.
The symptoms of these diseases generally do not appear for 20 or more years after initial exposure. The body attacks the fiber lodged in the lung or between the lung and mesothelium, but because asbestos is a rock, the body’s normal antibodies cannot kill it. Instead, the fibers damage the cells that attack it creating scar tissue, which in some cases leads to cancer.
IMPORTANT FEDERAL REGULATIONS FOR RESTORERS
EPA 40 CFR 763 Subpart E.
In 1986 the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Resonse Act (AHERA) was signed into law in the United States by President Ronald Reagan. The act gave the EPA responsibility and authority to require that all school buildings in the United States be inspected for asbestos-containing materials, to document the location and amount of those materials, and to ensure that emissions of fibers from those materials be prevented. An ammendment to AHERA in 1990 established and required accreditation standards for individuals performing asbestos inspections and abatements in schools, commercial, and public buildings. Restoration professionals should be familiar with the relevant regulations in EPA
EPA NESHAP 40 CFR Part 61 Subpart M
NESHAP is an acronym for National Emission Standards of Hazardous Air Pollutants. NESHAP regulates the proper identification and transportatoin of hazardous waste.
OSHA 29 CFR 1926.1101
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) promulgated regulation to ensure worker safety. The primary relevant rules for asbestos work that all restorers should be familiar with are found in 29 CFR 1926.1101.
Stay tuned for my next entry discussing relevant details of asbestos testing.