This article describes the use of asbestos in silos and agricultural buildings.

Photos shown here were provided courtesy of an InspectApedia.com reader cited below.

Uses of Asbestos in Silos & Agricultural Storage Buildings

Asbestos was widely-used in silos and other agricultural buildings in roofing, in cement-asbestos board products used as roofing or siding, and in some fire-resistant coatings. Most of these forms are not friable except during demolition or mechanical disturbance.

Photo: these photos appear to illustrate a fiberglass storage silo that might have been painted with an asbestos-containing paint.

[Click to enlarge any image]

Question: is this old silo in Queensland, Australia just fiberglass or does it include asbestos?

We have an old silo on our recently purchased farm that we would like to dispose of but are concerned it could be asbestos? It looks like fibreglass. Advice welcomed

[Photos shown on this page were provided by this InspectApedia reader]

I am wondering if you may be able to tell from my attached photos if our grain silo could be asbestos? It looks like fibreglass and we would like to dispose of it but we are unsure.

- Anonymous in Queensland, Australia, by private email 2022/03/09

This Q&A were also posted originally by Claire

at ASBESTOS PHOTO GUIDE to MATERIALS

Moderator reply: bottom line: fiberglass silo, could be coated with an asbestos-containing paint

Thank you for the photos and interesting question about the use of asbestos in agricultural silos and, as perhaps in your photo, smaller storage tanks.

It's a fair question to ask, since fire hazards have always been a significant worry at silos, barns, and other agricultural buildings.

And indeed some research has reported the use of asbestos in silos, as I'll cite below. The most common use of asbestos in those environments was in cement-asbestos sheets and in some cement-asbestos or asphalt-asbestos roofing products.

While a photo examination is by no means an exhaustive lab test, the material in your photos looks to me like heavy fiberglass.

I can't say what might have been used to coat or paint it, however. Asbestos was used in some silo roof or wall coatings. (Warner 2006)

Advice: If you're not grinding, chopping, sawing, you're not creating significant-measurable levels of airborne dust.

Research on Asbestos use in Silos & Agricultural Buildings

• Abu-Allaban, Mahmoud M., Salahuddin M. Jaber, Aiman Soleiman, and Hasan Almarayeh. "Quantifying Emissions of PM10 Generated by the Implosion of Concrete Grain Silos." Aerosol and Air Quality Research 20, no. 11 (2020): 2548-2556.
• Gualtieri, Alessandro F., Magdalena Lassinantti Gualtieri, Valentina Scognamiglio, and Dario Di Giuseppe. "Human Health Hazards Associated with Asbestos in Building Materials." In Ecological and Health Effects of Building Materials, pp. 297-325. Springer, Cham, 2022.
  
  Excerpt:
  ... The global asbestos issue and its use as a building material today will be the core of the … -asbestos roofing of a building in a rural industrial area (b); a grain silo in a rural area
• Warner, Gene, & Michael Beebe, "Silo razing spews dust that triggers asbestos concerns EPA to do tests today at H-O Oats site after homes are coated", The Buffalo News, 12 June 2006
  
  Excerpts:
  "A team of federal environmental inspectors will conduct emergency air sampling near the H-O Oats demolition site today, after Erie County officials said they believe dangerous asbestos is in the dust coating the neighborhood near the new Lofts at Elk Terminal and the nearby public housing at the Perry Homes.
  
  Inspectors from the Environmental Protection Agency came to the nine-acre site of the planned Seneca Indians' Buffalo Creek Casino over the weekend at the request of county officials, who said the Senecas' records confirm the 70-year-old tower contains up to 14 percent asbestos in a silver coating covering the silos.
  
  But is it dangerous?
  
  A spokesman for the Seneca Gaming Corp., which plans a $125 million casino on the site east of HSBC Arena, said there is no danger. ...
  
  "We have been doing ongoing air quality monitoring through Watts Engineering since the demolition began and every day since," said Seneca spokesman Philip Pantano. "None of the results have shown there to be a concern."
  
  Asked what is in the dust if the coating contains asbestos, Pantano described it as "basically a concrete dust."
  
  "The exterior coating of the silo, a mastic coating, contained asbestos, which was nonfriable in nature," Pantano said. "It won't become airborne."
• Little, Simon, & Nadia Stewart, "Hazardous-material concerns raised over demolition of century-old East Vancouver grain silos", Global News, 26 June, 2019 globalnews.ca/news/5433174/vancouver-silo-demolition-concerns/
  Excerpt:
  "The company acknowledges the century-old facility contains asbestos, PCBs and mercury but says it has developed an environmental management plan designed to minimize dust and create containment zones. The company says it will also monitory air quality."

• Poole, Wiley Davis, SELF-FEEDING BUNKER SILOS [PDF] (1960). LSU Agricultural Experiment Station Reports. 11. digitalcommons.lsu.edu/agexp/11
• Prasad, Travis & Ash Kelley, "Concerns Rise as Old Grain Silos Come Down", City News (Vancouver Canada), 28 June 2019, https://vancouver.citynews.ca/
  
  Excerpt:
  "An environmental assessment shows the 100-year-old silos contain asbestos, mercury and PCBs."
• ILO, "Code of practice on safety and health in agriculture", International Labour Organization, Meeting of Experts to Adopt a Code of Practice on Safety and Health in Agriculture (Geneva, 25–29 October 2010) - retrieved 2022/03/09 original source: www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/@publ/documents/publication/wcms_159457.pdf
  
  Excerpts:
  14.7. Asbestos and insulation wools
  
  14.7.1. Hazard description
  
  14.7.1.1. Exposure to asbestos fibres in agricultural installations represents an extremely serious risk for workers. All asbestos is dangerous.
  
  Exposure to asbestos may cause diseases of the respiratory and digestive tracts, through inhalation or ingestion, and may cause secondary disease in a number of vital organs that may not become apparent for two to three decades. Diseases caused by exposure to asbestos may include asbestosis and mesothelioma that once diagnosed, are irreversible, disabling and frequently fatal.

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