Asbestos is mostly inert. It isn't however always bound. Whenever fibres come loose or are applied without a binding agent, it isn't safe. When bound, it is fairly safe as long as it stays that way.
As someone who watched their father die from a combination of asbestos/lead (worked in removal of it for over a decade), welders lung, and smoking, you can't be afraid of the world around you, just use your brain, and be smart about it, avoid it where you can, and when you can't take the necessary precautions.
9/11 : when the Twin Towers came down, much of lower Manhattan became heavily contaminated with asbestos and heavy metals. First responders and site workers have paid a heavy price medically for their bravery and hard work.
My house was built in the 1920's and the asbestos insulation has been removed, but after watching this video i realized that the wires in my home are still insulated in asbestos. This whole time i thought it was just regular cotton or something. Thank you for the information!
I remember those Bunsen burner pads from the science lab in school. Of course we were never told those were made from asbestos. And since the main building of my high school was built in the 1950s, I'm sure it was full of it. I'm also not too far away from the town of Manville, NJ that was named after the Johns Manville asbestos factory that once was there (torn down in the '90s and replaced with a shopping center). If that wasn't bad enough, Maville was also home to a creosote wood treatment site, which was replaced in the 1960s with a housing development and shopping center without doing any environmental remediation to clean up the badly polluted soil and groundwater. In the '90s the EPA came in and tore down the shopping center and some of the homes and removed 275,000 tons of contaminated soil.
I also recall the bunsen burner pads when I was at school in England in the 1960s. We were told that they were made of asbestos, but no one ever flagged up any possible problems.
The area would have been much safer if they had just left those 275,000 tons of contaminated soil right where they were. Disturbing it distributed it to who knows where. IF there was even enough contamination to be dangerous in the first place.
Asbestos is most dangerous in it's friable state. Otherwise it's relatively safe to handle. It can also be encapsulated with paint, when it isn't feasible to r&r it.
I once worked for a woman that was the head nurse at a mesothelioma ward in a hospital. She told me that every person that had treated in that ward ALSO smoked. She said smoking makes you draw the particles in deeper into your lungs and they almost always go together. I wonder if anyone else can corroborate my statement.
A friend of a friend of mine wrote a nationally used guide for dealing with asbestos. He said the important thing is to keep the substance inert and out of contact with people. Particularly in schools, the problem tends to be that work crews may refurbish or rebuild walls, floors and ceilings without understanding that their methods can unleash the asbestos.
Have been around asbestos containing materials practically all my life. Didn't realize what it was until much later. I remember as a kid playing amongst discarded cement siding (Transite), removing floor tile with a scraper, knocking down loose acoustic ceiling tiles with a pool cue (for the hell of it), finding a box of wicking, and operating old stage lights. Also my great uncle was an inspector for the FAA and later died of mesothelioma.
Asbestos is the best insulator ever discovered! Unfortunately it's a killer! In 1984 a co-worker and I had to shovel an entire boxcar, derailed train of asbestos in Barstow California behind the Barstow station. Maybe East 1/4 Mile? They did not give us anything except a paper mask, a snow shovel & a bunch of trash bags. It took us two days. I was 14 years old did not know anything about this stuff. I had to get my first work permit. Thank you California for looking after me!
Hi Fran! Thank you so much for this video. I just bought a 1933 home likely filled with lead and asbestos. I've been spiraling for days! Your video has eased so much of my anxiety around this. Seriously, thank you.
I agree about how much asbestos used to be in daily use. In my home when I was around eight years old, I can remember an asbestos teapot pad which was crumbling, spreading its fibres. Electric bar heaters had asbestos mounts for the bar. As well as that, water pipes were made from lead and I remember playing with my finger in the DDT dust, to kill flies, accumulated on the window sill. I gained a soldering iron when I was eleven when leaded solder was all there was and I have used one ever since. How did I manage to still be alive now I'm 74?
Oh boy. In India, it's everywhere. Neon bulbs joints, joints inside soldering iron, electric inside heaters, roofing sheets etc etc And the roofing sheets aren't even handled properly, specially when they are cutting it
My father was a car mechanic in Morocco، they used asbestos for isolating truck, bus and car cabins from the heat coming out if engines. It was cut by hand to make it for. He worked with this stuff from the 50s until the 00s. His lungs are not doing great now but that more from smoking and but from asbestos.
I've recently scrapped a hairdryer, and it never occurred to me that it could contain asbestos. Turns out that I've just checked it out, and (yes!) it's used in the heating element for providing electrical and thermal insulation, as well as some mechanical support.
Growing up, the hotpads in the kitchen (for placing a hot pan on) all had asbestos on the bottom. The first calibration lab I worked in had a variable carbon pile load resistor. Slabs of carbon about 2 inches square and 1/2 inch thick supported by a solid asbestos tray. The asbestos insulated the pile from the metal framework. Wire connections on each end, and a screw on one end to compress or relax the pile to vary the resistance. Like so many other things, as long as you treat it with respect it won't be too dangerous.
I've had asbestos removal training, and it's only harmful when asbestos dust is inhaled. Don't make dust with something made of asbestos(like cutting asbestos tile with a grinder setup with cutting disc or demolion of old construction where everything is asbestos containing ). If you wear adequate respiratory protection you are fine but dust contamination is always a HUGE problem(Contaminating clothing, home or work area.) Proper handling and disposal should be done by professionals.
When I was in high school we definitely had those asbestos wire mesh things for Bunsen burner‘s. And the teacher even said this is asbestos so be careful, yet they still kept them in the school
I used to work as an asbestos lab technician testing all kinds of products for it, the most surprising thing I found it in is toilet cisterns which shouldn't really be that surprising as it can be found in over 3000 products and has been used for thousands of years. And the thing with talc as I understood it was that small amounts of Tremolite can form naturally in it. I actually quite miss working with it, it's fascinating material and it can be very pretty viewed through a polarised light microscope, in fact the most dangerous thing about working with it in lab conditions is the chemicals used in the RI liquids to identify which form it is.
My grandfather was a builder from the 50's through till the late 80s, basically the height of its use in the Australian construction industry. There were 3 builders in his small town, who all had men working for them. Somehow, he found out and knew about the dangers of the stuff. the other 2 builders and there crew made a boat load of money doing renovations. Pop never did renovations, he only built new spec homes (that were asbestos free). These other blokes made a shitload of money doing reno's, they had the cars the houses all of it, pop never made a great deal of money, and lost what he did have in a business deal that went bad and essentially died with nothing. These other two blokes died decades before in there 50s and 60s from asbestos, pop lived to 90. He lost a shitload of mates to the stuff. it is criminal what went on. I have always know about the stuff, long story short, I inherited an old motorcycle, everyone it basically born with the knowledge about brakes and clutches, and i took great care with that stuff, as far as i knew asbestos was only found in 2 places on bikes, I never knew about the gaskets. when it came time to do the motor everyone talks about soda blasting aluminium engine cases, when i did it, I still vividly remember thinking, jee wiz, they say baking soda is safe, but does anyone really know what happens bother short and long term when you inhale it so i wore a mask anyway, 2 years later I found out the gasket which i had half arsed scratched off with a screwdriver was asbestos. the thought of doing such thing now petrifies me. now I know so much about the stuff it is abit ridiculous, also every city has some background level, which means we inhale literally thousands of fibres a day, which represents about a 1 in a million cancer risk apparently, but i question that because there are areas with naturally high background rates and people living in those areas are exposed to more. my school had an old building that was essentially all fibro cement, i remember it had air quality monitors throughout.. which basically means it is in the air as the walls shed., across the road from school was a big industrial warehouse estate thing with 10 acres of super 6 roofing on it. in australia they used it extensively for water piping aswell which represents about a 1 in a 100,000 cancer risk. it is just one of those things.
I worked in plumbing and hvac for over 40 years, and I try not to worry about all the asbestos exposure I've had, not to mention lead, PVC cement, etc. I still try to limit my exposure now, but I know of a lot of fellow workman in the trade that died of various types of cancer. I'm retired but careful!
Asbestos was also used in filters for respirators. :-) Robertson once had a coating for their trapezoidal sheet metal which was called Galbestos, a 500 µm coating containing Asbestos as support material. There's one building in my town (a power plant from the late 1960's) that still has that kinda coated sheet metal on its roof and that building is located next to an Autobahn and is located in an industrial area. Two years ago we've been up on that roof for inspection and you cannot believe in which fantastic condition this old roof still is. This roof will easily last for another 55 years.
Asbestos is fine if you don't disturb it. Bakelite is manufactured from asbestos and formaldehyde, but it's only a threat when you grind it up or break it into pieces. I think the problem with asbestos is that the asbestos companies knew the problem with it, but did nothing about it for years.
I grew up in a house with asbestos shingles on the house (that are still there today, only painted over). Add to that the asbestos insulation on the pipes of the heating system. Old houses - asbestos is largely unavoidable. Like you say Fran, be cautious, excercise care, take precautions.
I think there's a distinction between things made of asbestos and things that can contain traces of it. the talc case boiled down to people using absurd amounts of it and talc itself containing traces of asbestos
I knew an old fella worked in the shipyards in the NE of UK before WW2, they used to lag the boilers with it. He said it hung in the air like snow and got into everything, he lived into his 70's.
When I used to be involved with asbestos abatement people would ask me if it was as bad as they say. My response was not unless you are one of the people affected by it. Then it is very very bad. You show a good understanding of the subject.
My school found out that the tripod stands used in our labs have that asbestos in them like the exact ones you mentioned. This was after everyone had scraped away at it... that explained the dust in the air afterwards. The whole school had to be tested for asbestos poisoning. To my knowledge, no one had it. The one thing they did say was we were more likely to be killed by the gas leak in one of the labs. We still use these tripod stands, just with the windows open now and no one picks at them now.
Asbestos poisoning doesn't exist, asbestos is chemically inert. The screwed up part is that it takes decades for damage to appear. My dad used to work with asbestos for a few years, and now, in his 70s, year after year his lungs work less, he has less stamina, he coughs up more mucus, etc... And he's been lucky enough not to develop mesothelioma so far, but it's horrifying to watch him decline.
When our labs were being re done a few years ago the work had to stop every 1-2 weeks because they would find extra asbestos that wasn't on the plans. Apparently it was crammed in as many places as possible, often for no discernable reason.
I will be wearing N95’s and P100’s (when they’re available) as well as gloves and long sleeve work shirt whenever I dig into old electronics form here out, I don’t really have any clue just how much asbestos I’ve been exposed to and I don’t think I really want to know. Thank you for the great video, very helpful!
I purchased a roll of asbestos 50 years ago from our local hardware and still have most of the roll to this day. I was a 10 year old kid and used it on my mini bike exhaust to keep my leg from getting burned.
crisotile amphibole and crosiderlite are all manageable with paint just paint it ! if it is the flock brown or blue it needs removing by a professional dont disturb it ! as long as there are no flecking bits or damage it fine just leave it alone :) it wasn't harming you before you touched it :)
My grandma was a scientist and a big collector of rocks and minerals, and one thing she had on the shelf in the hallway was a big ol' chunk of natural asbestos. I always thought it was really cool. After she died, we found she also had a big like 1 litre glass bottle full of mercury. That was pretty awesome too. I was sad that my dad took it to the toxic waste disposal place.
In office buildings they lined the air duct work with asbestos batting so that the duct work wouldn't transfer sound office to office. Your air supply actually passed directly over the asbestos.
Landscape client had some asbestos remediation done under 100 year old house. Is it possible that the soils around the home are contaminated and is usual landscape planting and grass cutting safe? I am assuming asbestos can be in the dust of turned soils.
My memory of aspestos was my dad mixing a whole bag of it to make my train tunnel. I remember him sculpting it very carefully so there were places for little houses in the valleys and places for all of the artificial trees. Now I didn't read all of the comments I admit but I wonder if anyone else got to play with the x-ray machine in the shoe department. When shopping with my mother that was a real treat for my sister and I. We usually could be found x-raying ourselves in the shoe department.
i live in a house built in 1972 and there are asbestos popcorn ceilings in some rooms so if we sell the house in the future it might be a good idea to inform the new owners not to disturb the popcorn ceilings if they want to renovate.
In the late 90s I rented office space in a downtown highrise that was undergoing asbestos abatement. The building was only 20 years old, but was having the facade replaced with new glass and fancy stone, and the asbestos in the interstitial space between floors. My suite was the last one to be done on my floor. When they were done, it was eerie walking the rest of the floor. It was stripped absolutely bare… all the wiring, telcoms, hvac ducting had been removed, and the concrete and steel remaining had been scrubbed to within an inch of it’s life. I had publishing deadlines I couldn’t push back, and had to work through the weekend they were scheduled to do the elevator lobby area. They built a sealed tunnel from my door to the one elevator they left operation on that floor. Airlocked and everything. I had been naughty and had popped up into the ceilding to run some networking cable, and the space was literally filled with loose blown cellusose+asbestos, and the ceiling and steel floor trusses were coating a sprayed on adhesive fibre coating for fire isolation. No wonder they were going to great lengths to remove it.
I work in a school that had to have that asbestos removed,from floor files to sealing tiles,insulation .it was used in car brakes,so many things,like you said glad it's going away.
Having spent lots of time crawling around in attics running wires, I shudder to think how much fiberglass I have inhaled. And the heating/cooling ductwork in my 1988 house is fibreglass ---- not merely metal ducts wrapped with fiberglass insulation, the actual ducts are made from sheets of compressed, bonded fibreglass. I wonder how much of that glass fiber was carried off and spread around the house by the airflow....although at this point I would expect that all the loose fibers had been blown away years ago. I do have additional filtration at all the air inlets and outlets.....and I change the filters frequently.
The other thing to beware of in some electronics (high power RF: transistors, magnetrons etc.) is beryllia - you do NOT want to break or abrade it as it is highly toxic
@@tinecrinec4769 It's the ceramic they make some old ceramic chips out of. It's similar ceramic to the beryllium ceramic in Microwave Oven Transformers. Not sure why. Perhaps it's a better insulator/thermal transfer material
@@tinecrinec4769 Inside the bolt mounting RF power transistors with the "helicopter blade" connections, can be exposed if damaged, if the body is broken away from the mount,
In the 70's Yamaha made studio monitor speakers, which had beryllium dome tweeters and midranges. They were covered by a mesh grille, but they were pretty exposed. The finnish broadcasting company YLE used to have active version of those speakers, and they had a red warning labels on them about the poisonous beryllium. Original Yamahas didn't have any warnings.
Apparently the warehouse I worked in as a teenager had asbestos in and around the heating and air ducts. To make matters worse someone partially crushed one and it was never repaired so the dust was constantly getting blown all through the building.
I lived in Midtown Manhattan in the late 60s-70s and walked home from a bus stop that had me walking between three giant "new" office buildings being built at the same time. Exxon, McGraw-Hill and The Miller Bldg (now things are fuzzy-- all three had a near-matching strong linear facade -- and now Avenue of the Americas seems pointlessly over-insisted on...). I believe, this was just at the time when asbestos was sprayed on all the ope steelwork! I used to trudge on the street, between the hole-in-the-ground walls of plywood and the completely open diesel air compressors, lined up for most of the site. There was no escaping it either.
My school had those bunson mats. We use to use them all the time in science. This was in the 2000s. Have no fought they are still using them as most of the kit used in science was decades old. 80s - Shame there were no 80s computers left. I scoured that whole place looking for them.
A great informative Video!!! Asbestos clad houses were built in Portsmouth UK during WWII (because of the air raids using incendiaries). My parents moved one to their property in 1967 and it's still there, being a garage workshop.
Twenty years ago, I worked for a charity which gave support for those with Asbestos related disease. There was a client, lets call him Billy. He had a summer job in 1976, sawing insulating board for a job for a week. He was diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma aged forty. His rapid decline still haunts me. He died aged 42. A ghastly, horrible illness.
I agree completely! My best friends father who is like a second dad to me taught me how to restore antique electronics. Asbestos everywhere! Do you have any upcoming horology/watchmaking videos? Said friend is a watchmaker and after I showed him your pocket watch he gave me a really 1897-199 Elgin after as a token of appreciation. It means the world to me.
As a geology student in the 1980s, we had a field trip to Asbestos, Canada where we saw the mine, the mill, and the refining facility that was literally raining asbestos from the ceiling. No PPE in sight, to include on us. I didn't die, but acute exposure is less significant than long-term exposure. Generally, diseases from materials like asbestos are identified in an industry setting first where exposure is constant. While studying for my master's in international environmental science, I learned that the US has to have asbestos limits in drinking water due to the prevalence of asbestos cement in water pipes in the country. Other countries don't even bother testing since their pipes are made from plastic. An unexpected source of asbestos exposure is from old gas mask filters. Especially ones from Warsaw Pact countries where the use of asbestos in filters was common up to the early 1990s. Many people use these as cosplay for video games where the faceless minions often wear gas masks (the "gas mask mook" phenomenon). It is particularly worrying since they are right in the respiratory path and the filters are old, breaking down, and channeled right to your lungs. One way to tell fiberglass from asbestos was to look at it under a polarizing microscope. Glass in fiberglass is anisotropic and remains dark with no extinction angle while asbestos is a crystalline mineral that gives a colorful birefringence under crossed polarizers. As a community service in our college town, we would analyze samples and receive half credit for doing so over the semester.
Somebody below mentioned having lived near a former creosote plant. That's some nasty carcinogenic stuff, once used to preserve railroad ties and telephone poles. Modern wood preservatives are copper-based, hence the familiar green color, but up until some point in the late 1980s or early 1990s, pressure-treated wood used arsenic compounds, and one should avoid breathing the dust when demolishing or repairing an older deck.
Like the Godfather told Santino "don't tell anyone outside the family what you are thinking" BUT I had to tell you I absolutely adore your show !! Thanks Fran
I recall at the start of the asbestos problem, my pathology professor said that there were 2 types of it, amphibole and chrysotile. The chrysotile form was the more dangerous type. He believed that mesothelioma was promoted when lung macrophages tried to clean up the pointy asbestos dust in the lung and couldn’t because of the physical shape and size caused the phage to die. That was 30 years ago and I haven’t kept up. I’m sure the etiology of the disease is much better known.
MyDailyUpload Not so sure about this, I think you might have it the wrong way around. Chrysotile is "white" asbestos whilst "brown" and "blue" asbestos and amosite and crocidolite respectively. I think blue and brown are the amphiboles and considered more harmful.
Well said, I used to deal with sustainability, health & safety. Building a safety culture starts with awareness and alternatives to poor material choices as well as safe handling. Everyone please educate yourself prior to handling chemicals and hazardous materials.
Asbestos Pre-Fabs left holes in city landscapes when they came down as most were buried on site and covered over. There's one I know no-one will touch and it was lived in til the early 1990s. I have asbestos flashing between the roof and the outside walls of my 1970s timber-framed house even now; costs too much to remove it. I remember my Grannies both had asbestos mats for the electric cooker hobs so anything simmering didn't get too hot....it's quite a list.
When doing refurbishment on my very old house I found virtually all of the original wiring was lead clad cable with a woven (possibly asbestos) material insulation beneath the lead and finally a copper wire conductor, my local scrap guy was totally unfazed weighed it and paid me. I'm in the uk and my house is well over 100 years old and is quite close to a factory that for decades turned out asbestos products......................I'm still alive......happily.
In elementary school I bought loose asbestos at the hardware store, then used it with water to mold projects for school. And "yes", all our pipes at school were insulated with asbestos... it was everywhere.
Same with mine who worked in the abatement, and removal business for years, along with welders lung, and smoking. All we can do these days is spread awareness, and and avoid it as much as possible.
Killed my father as well, he was exposed to it in the steel mill where he worked for decades. Killed a lot of people in this town. It should not be necessary to work full-time any more with all the inventions since the steam engine. Less work would also mean less health risks.
Asbestos workers really suffered form poor health as a result. See this documentary from the 1970s about a British asbestos mill. th-cam.com/video/rhEdLXIsqe4/w-d-xo.html
Sorry man... killed my Dad too. It was so sad to see him at the end gasping for air.He was so active- loved to ride horses... they sprayed asbestos on all the steel beams where he worked for years for fireproofing. They spayed them while the guys were working a lot of days.
I worked in a building with asbestos fireproofing for years. They monitored it and at one point sprayed something on it to keep it from becoming airborne (the real danger). Honestly nobody really worried that much about it. .. as long as the testing looked good.
avoid all dusts - they are all life limiting, silicates are the next target in building. Back to asbestos - it was even used in childrens' wax crayons (as they broke the bristles were visible) Rather than disturb any - spray it lightly with a mix of water and PVA to suppress the dust and bind the remainder. 9/10 for using the respirator but better to evacuate the air surrounding an object (such as chemists would use)
@@nyki7fykxtjxyi So are others. But asbestos is deadly as hell, so...what, do you suggest we bring it back or smth? We have much better and safer materials now for that
I just got a hosue with asbestos duct work tape and I was so scared. This made me feel SO much better. I am just putting flexi-seal over it and then metal duct tape type stuff. If anyone has tips to better that encapsulating process PLEASE let me know.
You can have it removed by a company specialized on that kind of job, but it's probably going to be expensive. Don't try to remove large amounts of it yourself unless you know exactly what you are doing. In general it's probably better to leave it, as long as it's not in the way and doesn't look crumbly. Fixating it in place is probably the best solution, even if it doesn't "feel" right. Now, if your house has ceiling tiles with asbestos in them, that's an entirely different story. That's a necessary complete renovation by specialists.
Darlene Coker, sued Johnson & Johnson in 1997, and alleged that the company's baby powder had given her a rare form of cancer, mesothelioma, which is closely linked to asbestos She died from mesothelioma in 2009.
I'm assuming the asbestos was used as insulation? Or was the actual tank made of it? Since it's dangerous if it is breathed in, I'm not sure how dangerous it is, if at all, if you ingest it.
My dad was an auto mechanic in the 70s and 80s. Brake pads contained asbestos back in the day. He talks of blowing dust off of them. Pretty sure i was exposed to it as a baby and young child.
Thank you for an honest discussion. I have very much the same life and professional experience with this and other items frowned on today. I also agree with your view of the risk adverse nature of young people which also I believe contributes to a culture too afraid of failure and negatively speak or treat those who reach success after several failed attempts. Some of the greatest discoveries were made from mistakes and failures to achieve desired results early on.
Another example, many steam locomotives had asbestos to insulate their boilers. That big cylindrical thing that makes most of the volume of a steam locomotive were entirely covered with asbestos and then a thin shell of sheet metal. Now days the replace them with ceramic blankets which are inferior. Asbestos is a fantastic material, but you really need to encapsulate it for human health concerns.
John Sununu (former Governor and a White House Chief of Staff) was on the Johnny Carson show once talking about federal regulations. He said most politicians "don't know the difference between a part per thousand, part per million, or part per trillion" because they are mostly lawyers. Johnny Carson said, "I thought you were a lawyer". Sununu responded, "No. I'm an engineer. We solve problems instead of creating them." (He has a Masters from M.I.T. in mechanical engineering and also taught the subject.)
Hi Fran loved ur commentary. I was born in the 50s and I know that yes, there was a lot of asbestos.I do wonder if they used asbestos to build movie sets.I know they use it for snow.But I wonder if they used it for walls or powder for a fact.Would you have any idea
I do remember crawling around in an attic or two that were insulated with asbestos-containing vermiculite. I had to fish some cat 5 data cabling through a wall in an older office building and when I cut a hole for the conduit box about 5 gallons of vermiculite spilled out of the wall! I had no idea then about the asbestos content...
I remember being in rooms that looked like a blizzard of asbestos when I worked for another company, no masks or nothing. When I found out how bad it was and said no more he just said, than go home, and I did. He cared so little that he had his children working in it also...
It's odd - i've never encountered asbestos covered wire. Even though my country had a large asbestos industry, it doesn't seem to have been used in wiring.
The house I spent my first 11 years living in, had asbestos shingles on the roof and the siding on the outside. My mom had this gadget that she would put on a burner of the stove and put a pot on it. If you're my age, you'll know what I'm taking about.
Asbestos makes for absolutely fantastic gasket material for exhaust systems.
heat resistant and durable. Shame it's so bad for the lungs.
Cody'sLab it’s a pleasure to see you here sir!
We still have a good supply of it and use it in hobby early gas engines.
I still use lead solder for the same reasons... it's just better.
Fran Blanche totally agree! I can’t see myself using anything else!
It is fairly safe in it's inert state. It is when you star busting it up and stripping it away that it becomes a real hazard.
Agreed. But the snow thing is not, lol.
Or of course when cleaning it...
Asbestos is mostly inert. It isn't however always bound. Whenever fibres come loose or are applied without a binding agent, it isn't safe. When bound, it is fairly safe as long as it stays that way.
Exactly...
It's best to spray a tacky protective water coat around it so none of the fibers can break loose.
As someone who watched their father die from a combination of asbestos/lead (worked in removal of it for over a decade), welders lung, and smoking, you can't be afraid of the world around you, just use your brain, and be smart about it, avoid it where you can, and when you can't take the necessary precautions.
9/11 : when the Twin Towers came down, much of lower Manhattan became heavily contaminated with asbestos and heavy metals. First responders and site workers have paid a heavy price medically for their bravery and hard work.
My house was built in the 1920's and the asbestos insulation has been removed, but after watching this video i realized that the wires in my home are still insulated in asbestos. This whole time i thought it was just regular cotton or something. Thank you for the information!
I remember those Bunsen burner pads from the science lab in school. Of course we were never told those were made from asbestos. And since the main building of my high school was built in the 1950s, I'm sure it was full of it. I'm also not too far away from the town of Manville, NJ that was named after the Johns Manville asbestos factory that once was there (torn down in the '90s and replaced with a shopping center). If that wasn't bad enough, Maville was also home to a creosote wood treatment site, which was replaced in the 1960s with a housing development and shopping center without doing any environmental remediation to clean up the badly polluted soil and groundwater. In the '90s the EPA came in and tore down the shopping center and some of the homes and removed 275,000 tons of contaminated soil.
I also recall the bunsen burner pads when I was at school in England in the 1960s. We were told that they were made of asbestos, but no one ever flagged up any possible problems.
The area would have been much safer if they had just left those 275,000 tons of contaminated soil right where they were. Disturbing it distributed it to who knows where. IF there was even enough contamination to be dangerous in the first place.
Asbestos is most dangerous in it's friable state. Otherwise it's relatively safe to handle. It can also be encapsulated with paint, when it isn't feasible to r&r it.
I once worked for a woman that was the head nurse at a mesothelioma ward in a hospital.
She told me that every person that had treated in that ward ALSO smoked. She said smoking makes you draw the particles in deeper into your lungs and they almost always go together.
I wonder if anyone else can corroborate my statement.
Taking sensible precautions and not overreacting is what the world needs a lot more of in general. Thanks, Fran!
A friend of a friend of mine wrote a nationally used guide for dealing with asbestos. He said the important thing is to keep the substance inert and out of contact with people. Particularly in schools, the problem tends to be that work crews may refurbish or rebuild walls, floors and ceilings without understanding that their methods can unleash the asbestos.
Have been around asbestos containing materials practically all my life. Didn't realize what it was until much later. I remember as a kid playing amongst discarded cement siding (Transite), removing floor tile with a scraper, knocking down loose acoustic ceiling tiles with a pool cue (for the hell of it), finding a box of wicking, and operating old stage lights. Also my great uncle was an inspector for the FAA and later died of mesothelioma.
We'll just deal with it asbestos we can.
OOOOOOOHHHHHHH!! Bah-bing!
W.D. Callahan
I'm sure that's a capital crime in at least one country :)
Darnit...beat me to it
Get out xD
I see you're a fellow dad.
Asbestos is the best insulator ever discovered!
Unfortunately it's a killer!
In 1984 a co-worker and I had to shovel an entire boxcar, derailed train of asbestos in Barstow California behind the Barstow station. Maybe East 1/4 Mile?
They did not give us anything except a paper mask, a snow shovel & a bunch of trash bags. It took us two days. I was 14 years old did not know anything about this stuff. I had to get my first work permit. Thank you California for looking after me!
Hi Fran! Thank you so much for this video. I just bought a 1933 home likely filled with lead and asbestos. I've been spiraling for days! Your video has eased so much of my anxiety around this. Seriously, thank you.
I know that feeling
I agree about how much asbestos used to be in daily use. In my home when I was around eight years old, I can remember an asbestos teapot pad which was crumbling, spreading its fibres. Electric bar heaters had asbestos mounts for the bar. As well as that, water pipes were made from lead and I remember playing with my finger in the DDT dust, to kill flies, accumulated on the window sill. I gained a soldering iron when I was eleven when leaded solder was all there was and I have used one ever since. How did I manage to still be alive now I'm 74?
Man, the USA is such a nice place. They still put asbestos in brake pads, exactly where you absolutely positively do not want any asbestos.
Oh boy. In India, it's everywhere. Neon bulbs joints, joints inside soldering iron, electric inside heaters, roofing sheets etc etc
And the roofing sheets aren't even handled properly, specially when they are cutting it
We still have a saying in the UK, if you can drink very hot drinks you were called asbestos mouth, lol
Interesting. In the Netherlands, we say that someone's throat is made of lead when they are able to do that.
Also if you're able to hold hot things in your hand you're said to have "asbestos fingers" in the UK.
Apparently drinking very hot drinks can cause cancers too ...
@@mark314158 I'd have the more immediate concern of a badly scolded oesophagus TBH ;)
My father was a car mechanic in Morocco، they used asbestos for isolating truck, bus and car cabins from the heat coming out if engines. It was cut by hand to make it for. He worked with this stuff from the 50s until the 00s. His lungs are not doing great now but that more from smoking and but from asbestos.
I've recently scrapped a hairdryer, and it never occurred to me that it could contain asbestos. Turns out that I've just checked it out, and (yes!) it's used in the heating element for providing electrical and thermal insulation, as well as some mechanical support.
Growing up, the hotpads in the kitchen (for placing a hot pan on) all had asbestos on the bottom.
The first calibration lab I worked in had a variable carbon pile load resistor. Slabs of carbon about 2 inches square and 1/2 inch thick supported by a solid asbestos tray. The asbestos insulated the pile from the metal framework. Wire connections on each end, and a screw on one end to compress or relax the pile to vary the resistance.
Like so many other things, as long as you treat it with respect it won't be too dangerous.
I've had asbestos removal training, and it's only harmful when asbestos dust is inhaled. Don't make dust with something made of asbestos(like cutting asbestos tile with a grinder setup with cutting disc or demolion of old construction where everything is asbestos containing ). If you wear adequate respiratory protection you are fine but dust contamination is always a HUGE problem(Contaminating clothing, home or work area.) Proper handling and disposal should be done by professionals.
When I was in high school we definitely had those asbestos wire mesh things for Bunsen burner‘s. And the teacher even said this is asbestos so be careful, yet they still kept them in the school
I used to work as an asbestos lab technician testing all kinds of products for it, the most surprising thing I found it in is toilet cisterns which shouldn't really be that surprising as it can be found in over 3000 products and has been used for thousands of years. And the thing with talc as I understood it was that small amounts of Tremolite can form naturally in it.
I actually quite miss working with it, it's fascinating material and it can be very pretty viewed through a polarised light microscope, in fact the most dangerous thing about working with it in lab conditions is the chemicals used in the RI liquids to identify which form it is.
How bad is it on air ducts?
Very nice - combining your technical acumen with a rant, combining your audiences. Excellent.
My grandfather was a builder from the 50's through till the late 80s, basically the height of its use in the Australian construction industry. There were 3 builders in his small town, who all had men working for them. Somehow, he found out and knew about the dangers of the stuff. the other 2 builders and there crew made a boat load of money doing renovations. Pop never did renovations, he only built new spec homes (that were asbestos free). These other blokes made a shitload of money doing reno's, they had the cars the houses all of it, pop never made a great deal of money, and lost what he did have in a business deal that went bad and essentially died with nothing. These other two blokes died decades before in there 50s and 60s from asbestos, pop lived to 90. He lost a shitload of mates to the stuff. it is criminal what went on. I have always know about the stuff, long story short, I inherited an old motorcycle, everyone it basically born with the knowledge about brakes and clutches, and i took great care with that stuff, as far as i knew asbestos was only found in 2 places on bikes, I never knew about the gaskets. when it came time to do the motor everyone talks about soda blasting aluminium engine cases, when i did it, I still vividly remember thinking, jee wiz, they say baking soda is safe, but does anyone really know what happens bother short and long term when you inhale it so i wore a mask anyway, 2 years later I found out the gasket which i had half arsed scratched off with a screwdriver was asbestos. the thought of doing such thing now petrifies me. now I know so much about the stuff it is abit ridiculous, also every city has some background level, which means we inhale literally thousands of fibres a day, which represents about a 1 in a million cancer risk apparently, but i question that because there are areas with naturally high background rates and people living in those areas are exposed to more. my school had an old building that was essentially all fibro cement, i remember it had air quality monitors throughout.. which basically means it is in the air as the walls shed., across the road from school was a big industrial warehouse estate thing with 10 acres of super 6 roofing on it. in australia they used it extensively for water piping aswell which represents about a 1 in a 100,000 cancer risk. it is just one of those things.
I worked in plumbing and hvac for over 40 years, and I try not to worry about all the asbestos exposure I've had, not to mention lead, PVC cement, etc. I still try to limit my exposure now, but I know of a lot of fellow workman in the trade that died of various types of cancer. I'm retired but careful!
Asbestos was also used in filters for respirators. :-)
Robertson once had a coating for their trapezoidal sheet metal which was called Galbestos, a 500 µm coating containing Asbestos as support material. There's one building in my town (a power plant from the late 1960's) that still has that kinda coated sheet metal on its roof and that building is located next to an Autobahn and is located in an industrial area. Two years ago we've been up on that roof for inspection and you cannot believe in which fantastic condition this old roof still is. This roof will easily last for another 55 years.
Great video, i think that genetic predisposition also plays a big part in who succumbs to asbestos , smoking and drinking related problems
Asbestos is fine if you don't disturb it. Bakelite is manufactured from asbestos and formaldehyde, but it's only a threat when you grind it up or break it into pieces. I think the problem with asbestos is that the asbestos companies knew the problem with it, but did nothing about it for years.
I grew up in a house with asbestos shingles on the house (that are still there today, only painted over). Add to that the asbestos insulation on the pipes of the heating system. Old houses - asbestos is largely unavoidable. Like you say Fran, be cautious, excercise care, take precautions.
3:11 I remember removing these tiles from our home, and several others when I worked construction.
I think there's a distinction between things made of asbestos and things that can contain traces of it. the talc case boiled down to people using absurd amounts of it and talc itself containing traces of asbestos
I knew an old fella worked in the shipyards in the NE of UK before WW2, they used to lag the boilers with it. He said it hung in the air like snow and got into everything, he lived into his 70's.
When I used to be involved with asbestos abatement people would ask me if it was as bad as they say. My response was not unless you are one of the people affected by it. Then it is very very bad. You show a good understanding of the subject.
Fran: Saving the world one video at a time!!! ❤️❤️❤️
My school found out that the tripod stands used in our labs have that asbestos in them like the exact ones you mentioned. This was after everyone had scraped away at it... that explained the dust in the air afterwards. The whole school had to be tested for asbestos poisoning. To my knowledge, no one had it. The one thing they did say was we were more likely to be killed by the gas leak in one of the labs. We still use these tripod stands, just with the windows open now and no one picks at them now.
Asbestos poisoning doesn't exist, asbestos is chemically inert. The screwed up part is that it takes decades for damage to appear. My dad used to work with asbestos for a few years, and now, in his 70s, year after year his lungs work less, he has less stamina, he coughs up more mucus, etc...
And he's been lucky enough not to develop mesothelioma so far, but it's horrifying to watch him decline.
When our labs were being re done a few years ago the work had to stop every 1-2 weeks because they would find extra asbestos that wasn't on the plans. Apparently it was crammed in as many places as possible, often for no discernable reason.
I will be wearing N95’s and P100’s (when they’re available) as well as gloves and long sleeve work shirt whenever I dig into old electronics form here out, I don’t really have any clue just how much asbestos I’ve been exposed to and I don’t think I really want to know. Thank you for the great video, very helpful!
I purchased a roll of asbestos 50 years ago from our local hardware and still have most of the roll to this day. I was a 10 year old kid and used it on my mini bike exhaust to keep my leg from getting burned.
crisotile amphibole and crosiderlite are all manageable with paint just paint it ! if it is the flock brown or blue it needs removing by a professional dont disturb it ! as long as there are no flecking bits or damage it fine just leave it alone :) it wasn't harming you before you touched it :)
My grandma was a scientist and a big collector of rocks and minerals, and one thing she had on the shelf in the hallway was a big ol' chunk of natural asbestos. I always thought it was really cool. After she died, we found she also had a big like 1 litre glass bottle full of mercury. That was pretty awesome too. I was sad that my dad took it to the toxic waste disposal place.
Your grandma seems kickass.
In office buildings they lined the air duct work with asbestos batting so that the duct work wouldn't transfer sound office to office. Your air supply actually passed directly over the asbestos.
I look forward to my regular dose of FranCam!
I miss Fran Jam
This was theeeeee best informational video on asbestos!! Thank you kindly 🙏
Landscape client had some asbestos remediation done under 100 year old house. Is it possible that the soils around the home are contaminated and is usual landscape planting and grass cutting safe? I am assuming asbestos can be in the dust of turned soils.
My memory of aspestos was my dad mixing a whole bag of it to make my train tunnel. I remember him sculpting it very carefully so there were places for little houses in the valleys and places for all of the artificial trees.
Now I didn't read all of the comments I admit but I wonder if anyone else got to play with the x-ray machine in the shoe department. When shopping with my mother that was a real treat for my sister and I. We usually could be found x-raying ourselves in the shoe department.
i live in a house built in 1972 and there are asbestos popcorn ceilings in some rooms so if we sell the house in the future it might be a good idea to inform the new owners not to disturb the popcorn ceilings if they want to renovate.
In the late 90s I rented office space in a downtown highrise that was undergoing asbestos abatement. The building was only 20 years old, but was having the facade replaced with new glass and fancy stone, and the asbestos in the interstitial space between floors. My suite was the last one to be done on my floor. When they were done, it was eerie walking the rest of the floor. It was stripped absolutely bare… all the wiring, telcoms, hvac ducting had been removed, and the concrete and steel remaining had been scrubbed to within an inch of it’s life. I had publishing deadlines I couldn’t push back, and had to work through the weekend they were scheduled to do the elevator lobby area. They built a sealed tunnel from my door to the one elevator they left operation on that floor. Airlocked and everything. I had been naughty and had popped up into the ceilding to run some networking cable, and the space was literally filled with loose blown cellusose+asbestos, and the ceiling and steel floor trusses were coating a sprayed on adhesive fibre coating for fire isolation. No wonder they were going to great lengths to remove it.
I work in a school that had to have that asbestos removed,from floor files to sealing tiles,insulation .it was used in car brakes,so many things,like you said glad it's going away.
Having spent lots of time crawling around in attics running wires, I shudder to think how much fiberglass I have inhaled. And the heating/cooling ductwork in my 1988 house is fibreglass ---- not merely metal ducts wrapped with fiberglass insulation, the actual ducts are made from sheets of compressed, bonded fibreglass. I wonder how much of that glass fiber was carried off and spread around the house by the airflow....although at this point I would expect that all the loose fibers had been blown away years ago. I do have additional filtration at all the air inlets and outlets.....and I change the filters frequently.
The other thing to beware of in some electronics (high power RF: transistors, magnetrons etc.) is beryllia - you do NOT want to break or abrade it as it is highly toxic
It must be inside the transistors you mentioned then, correct?
@@tinecrinec4769 It's the ceramic they make some old ceramic chips out of. It's similar ceramic to the beryllium ceramic in Microwave Oven Transformers. Not sure why. Perhaps it's a better insulator/thermal transfer material
@@tinecrinec4769 Inside the bolt mounting RF power transistors with the "helicopter blade" connections, can be exposed if damaged, if the body is broken away from the mount,
Reminds me of selenium rectifiers. They used to be in every TV and radio. Selenium is highly toxic, too.
In the 70's Yamaha made studio monitor speakers, which had beryllium dome tweeters and midranges. They were covered by a mesh grille, but they were pretty exposed. The finnish broadcasting company YLE used to have active version of those speakers, and they had a red warning labels on them about the poisonous beryllium. Original Yamahas didn't have any warnings.
Apparently the warehouse I worked in as a teenager had asbestos in and around the heating and air ducts. To make matters worse someone partially crushed one and it was never repaired so the dust was constantly getting blown all through the building.
same :( but nothing we can do now
This was a lot more interesting than I thought it was going to be! Thanks Fran!
I lived in Midtown Manhattan in the late 60s-70s and walked home from a bus stop that had me walking between three giant "new" office buildings being built at the same time. Exxon, McGraw-Hill and The Miller Bldg (now things are fuzzy-- all three had a near-matching strong linear facade -- and now Avenue of the Americas seems pointlessly over-insisted on...). I believe, this was just at the time when asbestos was sprayed on all the ope steelwork! I used to trudge on the street, between the hole-in-the-ground walls of plywood and the completely open diesel air compressors, lined up for most of the site. There was no escaping it either.
My school had those bunson mats. We use to use them all the time in science.
This was in the 2000s. Have no fought they are still using them as most of the kit used in science was decades old. 80s -
Shame there were no 80s computers left. I scoured that whole place looking for them.
We live in a complex world full of things. 5:20 Yes! I was thinking the same thing. Good overview 🎉
A great informative Video!!!
Asbestos clad houses were built in Portsmouth UK during WWII (because of the air raids using incendiaries). My parents moved one to their property in 1967 and it's still there, being a garage workshop.
Twenty years ago, I worked for a charity which gave support for those with Asbestos related disease. There was a client, lets call him Billy. He had a summer job in 1976, sawing insulating board for a job for a week. He was diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma aged forty. His rapid decline still haunts me. He died aged 42. A ghastly, horrible illness.
I agree completely! My best friends father who is like a second dad to me taught me how to restore antique electronics. Asbestos everywhere! Do you have any upcoming horology/watchmaking videos? Said friend is a watchmaker and after I showed him your pocket watch he gave me a really 1897-199 Elgin after as a token of appreciation. It means the world to me.
As a geology student in the 1980s, we had a field trip to Asbestos, Canada where we saw the mine, the mill, and the refining facility that was literally raining asbestos from the ceiling. No PPE in sight, to include on us. I didn't die, but acute exposure is less significant than long-term exposure. Generally, diseases from materials like asbestos are identified in an industry setting first where exposure is constant.
While studying for my master's in international environmental science, I learned that the US has to have asbestos limits in drinking water due to the prevalence of asbestos cement in water pipes in the country. Other countries don't even bother testing since their pipes are made from plastic.
An unexpected source of asbestos exposure is from old gas mask filters. Especially ones from Warsaw Pact countries where the use of asbestos in filters was common up to the early 1990s. Many people use these as cosplay for video games where the faceless minions often wear gas masks (the "gas mask mook" phenomenon). It is particularly worrying since they are right in the respiratory path and the filters are old, breaking down, and channeled right to your lungs.
One way to tell fiberglass from asbestos was to look at it under a polarizing microscope. Glass in fiberglass is anisotropic and remains dark with no extinction angle while asbestos is a crystalline mineral that gives a colorful birefringence under crossed polarizers. As a community service in our college town, we would analyze samples and receive half credit for doing so over the semester.
Somebody below mentioned having lived near a former creosote plant. That's some nasty carcinogenic stuff, once used to preserve railroad ties and telephone poles. Modern wood preservatives are copper-based, hence the familiar green color, but up until some point in the late 1980s or early 1990s, pressure-treated wood used arsenic compounds, and one should avoid breathing the dust when demolishing or repairing an older deck.
How am I only just now discovering this channel!?!?!
Like the Godfather told Santino "don't tell anyone outside the family what you are thinking" BUT I had to tell you I absolutely adore your show !! Thanks Fran
Hello Fran, I like your videos and have been watching them for a year now. Thank you for the technical information. You have a Great New Year. Jay :)
Don't worry too much about asbestos. That car that just drove by spewed, out it's exhaust, things just as fun. ;)
I recall at the start of the asbestos problem, my pathology professor said that there were 2 types of it, amphibole and chrysotile. The chrysotile form was the more dangerous type. He believed that mesothelioma was promoted when lung macrophages tried to clean up the pointy asbestos dust in the lung and couldn’t because of the physical shape and size caused the phage to die. That was 30 years ago and I haven’t kept up. I’m sure the etiology of the disease is much better known.
MyDailyUpload Not so sure about this, I think you might have it the wrong way around. Chrysotile is "white" asbestos whilst "brown" and "blue" asbestos and amosite and crocidolite respectively. I think blue and brown are the amphiboles and considered more harmful.
Well said, I used to deal with sustainability, health & safety. Building a safety culture starts with awareness and alternatives to poor material choices as well as safe handling. Everyone please educate yourself prior to handling chemicals and hazardous materials.
Thanks Fran ! :)
Very interesting vlog Fran lab .
Asbestos Pre-Fabs left holes in city landscapes when they came down as most were buried on site and covered over. There's one I know no-one will touch and it was lived in til the early 1990s. I have asbestos flashing between the roof and the outside walls of my 1970s timber-framed house even now; costs too much to remove it. I remember my Grannies both had asbestos mats for the electric cooker hobs so anything simmering didn't get too hot....it's quite a list.
When doing refurbishment on my very old house I found virtually all of the original wiring was lead clad cable with a woven (possibly asbestos) material insulation beneath the lead and finally a copper wire conductor, my local scrap guy was totally unfazed weighed it and paid me. I'm in the uk and my house is well over 100 years old and is quite close to a factory that for decades turned out asbestos products......................I'm still alive......happily.
In elementary school I bought loose asbestos at the hardware store, then used it with water to mold projects for school. And "yes", all our pipes at school were insulated with asbestos... it was everywhere.
3:54 - The speaker grill on the IT-12 may be asbestos!
Perhaps. I did not use the one that came in the kit, I used modern poly grill cloth. I don't take chances with that wire mesh felt.
killed my dad, nasty, painful and - for a man who was active his whole life - humiliating way to exit this mortal coil
Same with mine who worked in the abatement, and removal business for years, along with welders lung, and smoking. All we can do these days is spread awareness, and and avoid it as much as possible.
So sorry about your Dad!
Killed my father as well, he was exposed to it in the steel mill where he worked for decades. Killed a lot of people in this town. It should not be necessary to work full-time any more with all the inventions since the steam engine. Less work would also mean less health risks.
Asbestos workers really suffered form poor health as a result. See this documentary from the 1970s about a British asbestos mill.
th-cam.com/video/rhEdLXIsqe4/w-d-xo.html
Sorry man... killed my Dad too. It was so sad to see him at the end gasping for air.He was so active- loved to ride horses... they sprayed asbestos on all the steel beams where he worked for years for fireproofing. They spayed them while the guys were working a lot of days.
I worked in a building with asbestos fireproofing for years. They monitored it and at one point sprayed something on it to keep it from becoming airborne (the real danger). Honestly nobody really worried that much about it. .. as long as the testing looked good.
Good video, Fran. I’m one of the last ones who grew up with lead, asbestos, mercury, etc., so I don’t panic over it, either.
but its still all around us in old buildings etc.
avoid all dusts - they are all life limiting, silicates are the next target in building. Back to asbestos - it was even used in childrens' wax crayons (as they broke the bristles were visible) Rather than disturb any - spray it lightly with a mix of water and PVA to suppress the dust and bind the remainder. 9/10 for using the respirator but better to evacuate the air surrounding an object (such as chemists would use)
Did someone say asbestos?
It’s due for a comeback. I can feel it.
Isn't Trump making it great again?
@@apextroll This nic checks out.
Well, you can call it nano-technology and people will think of it as a new good thing.
Asbestos is a really good fireproof material
@@nyki7fykxtjxyi So are others. But asbestos is deadly as hell, so...what, do you suggest we bring it back or smth? We have much better and safer materials now for that
Nice and clear explanation, and you had examples I had never seen before ! Keep on Franting.
Idea for video...
Franting About Asbestos, but each time Fran says asbestos it gets 10% faster. :D
I just got a hosue with asbestos duct work tape and I was so scared. This made me feel SO much better. I am just putting flexi-seal over it and then metal duct tape type stuff. If anyone has tips to better that encapsulating process PLEASE let me know.
You can have it removed by a company specialized on that kind of job, but it's probably going to be expensive. Don't try to remove large amounts of it yourself unless you know exactly what you are doing. In general it's probably better to leave it, as long as it's not in the way and doesn't look crumbly. Fixating it in place is probably the best solution, even if it doesn't "feel" right. Now, if your house has ceiling tiles with asbestos in them, that's an entirely different story. That's a necessary complete renovation by specialists.
Darlene Coker, sued Johnson & Johnson in 1997, and alleged that the company's baby powder had given her a rare form of cancer, mesothelioma, which is closely linked to asbestos She died from mesothelioma in 2009.
In the house were I grew up in we had an asbestos hot water tank, that would basically fill up our bath. How bad is that lol
I'm assuming the asbestos was used as insulation? Or was the actual tank made of it? Since it's dangerous if it is breathed in, I'm not sure how dangerous it is, if at all, if you ingest it.
My dad was an auto mechanic in the 70s and 80s. Brake pads contained asbestos back in the day. He talks of blowing dust off of them. Pretty sure i was exposed to it as a baby and young child.
Thank you for helping raise awareness of this issue!!
Thank you for this. Had no idea it was in core wire insulation.
Thank you for an honest discussion. I have very much the same life and professional experience with this and other items frowned on today. I also agree with your view of the risk adverse nature of young people which also I believe contributes to a culture too afraid of failure and negatively speak or treat those who reach success after several failed attempts. Some of the greatest discoveries were made from mistakes and failures to achieve desired results early on.
Another example, many steam locomotives had asbestos to insulate their boilers. That big cylindrical thing that makes most of the volume of a steam locomotive were entirely covered with asbestos and then a thin shell of sheet metal. Now days the replace them with ceramic blankets which are inferior. Asbestos is a fantastic material, but you really need to encapsulate it for human health concerns.
John Sununu (former Governor and a White House Chief of Staff) was on the Johnny Carson show once talking about federal regulations. He said most politicians "don't know the difference between a part per thousand, part per million, or part per trillion" because they are mostly lawyers. Johnny Carson said, "I thought you were a lawyer". Sununu responded, "No. I'm an engineer. We solve problems instead of creating them." (He has a Masters from M.I.T. in mechanical engineering and also taught the subject.)
Hi Fran loved ur commentary. I was born in the 50s and I know that yes, there was a lot of asbestos.I do wonder if they used asbestos to build movie sets.I know they use it for snow.But I wonder if they used it for walls or powder for a fact.Would you have any idea
I do remember crawling around in an attic or two that were insulated with asbestos-containing vermiculite. I had to fish some cat 5 data cabling through a wall in an older office building and when I cut a hole for the conduit box about 5 gallons of vermiculite spilled out of the wall! I had no idea then about the asbestos content...
I remember being in rooms that looked like a blizzard of asbestos when I worked for another company, no masks or nothing. When I found out how bad it was and said no more he just said, than go home, and I did. He cared so little that he had his children working in it also...
wow how are you feeling now?
'wear a respirator'. . . can you get them from thrift shops? any tips on a good brand?
I was told years ago by a elderly gentleman, PCB oil was used for cooking French fry's !!
how do i remove the plaster wall that has asbestos ? and replace with drywall ? or drywall over it?
Hey, it's Fran..again...in my shop. Sure miss that introduction.
It's odd - i've never encountered asbestos covered wire. Even though my country had a large asbestos industry, it doesn't seem to have been used in wiring.
The house I spent my first 11 years living in, had asbestos shingles on the roof and the siding on the outside. My mom had this gadget that she would put on a burner of the stove and put a pot on it. If you're my age, you'll know what I'm taking about.
God bless the old Irish asbestos play area. Excellent poster!