Work with any type of asbestos involved is dangerous and amajority of the time it is not always obvious where the asbestos actually is asmost is located hidden away from any form of inspection.
The most commonplaces like these are asbestos cement products, floor tiles, insulating boardand surprisingly sprayed coatings on things such as ceilings, walls and beams. asbestos can be found inside and outside of a building andis extremely dangerous to people's health if not dealt with straightaway.
The amount of damage that asbestoshas on a human body depends mostly on the time scale that the person has beenexposed to the fibers and also the total number of fibers that have beenbreathed in.
After a large amount of fibers arebreathed in by a human being, asbestos gets to work at damaging vital organsand consequently leads to many human body diseases such as mesothelioma, lungcancer and asbestosis. These kind of diseases result in around 4000 deaths ayear.
Of course it is important toconsider that these diseases are caused by a long term exposure to asbestos soit is extremely wise to take precautions such as and of your workplace in order to prevent any contracting of anasbestos related disease in the future.
Lagging and insulation is one ofthe most dangerous materials to contain asbestos for a human being. Althoughthis type may have many different appearances and colours, which make it moredifficult to identify, a majority is a fibrous material which flakes easily dueto its powder like consistency.
This material is mainly found on heating systems such aspipework or boilers and due to the disturbance of the substance found aroundthese types of materials it means that the dangerous fibers are very easilyreleased into the air that we breathe.
However even more dangerous than asbestos contained inlagging and insulation is loose fill asbestos which is usually found behindcavity walls, loft spaces and commonly under floor boards. Pure asbestos ismade to create this material resulting in a huge amount of dangerous fibers inthe air if disturbed and therefore breathed in.
If this could bea risk in your own home or workplace the best thing to do is to get it checkedit as soon as possible and do not attempt to work on this materialunless you are a HSE-licensed contractor.
Although the danger is high with exposure to asbestos, thereare some factors which could effect the level of risk to disease a person is.These are factors such as smoking.
