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Asbestos heating pipe insulation in poor condition Photo Guide to Visual Asbestos Risk Assessment in buildings

  • POST a QUESTION or COMMENT about making a visual determination of the level of risk based on the condition or nature of asbestos-containing materials in buildings

Visual guide to asbestos risk assessment in buildings:

How to conduct a visual inspection for asbestos risks in buildings: Essential questions to ask in assessing the asbestos hazard risk.

This article discusses basic asbestos risk factors in buildings, simple visual inspection procedures, and summarizes current best judgment on removing versus leaving asbestos alone indoors. Visual inspection for asbestos is not a substitute for forensic investigation, air and dust sampling to detect asbestos contamination in buildings due to disturbance of that material.

This is part of our document which assists building buyers, owners or inspectors who need to identify asbestos materials (or probable-asbestos) in buildings by simple visual inspection.

InspectAPedia tolerates no conflicts of interest. We have no relationship with advertisers, products, or services discussed at this website.

- Daniel Friedman, Publisher/Editor/Author - See WHO ARE WE?

Asbestos Risk Factors

Asbestos suspect sheet flooring from a historic home in VermontAsbestos, a mineral fiber mined from the earth and used as a fire proof insulating material as well as in other products, has been a major occupational and safety hazard of great concern since the 1930's.

Out of the work place, in homes and offices, there are also potential health hazards, in particular if asbestos material is damaged, disturbed, in poor condition, or located where it is likely to suffer these effects.

But often asbestos-containing material can and should simply be left alone, undisturbed. Unnecessary disturbance of asbestos materials in such buildings is at risk of creating a more severe hazard than leaving it alone. In other cases asbestos encapsulation may be recommended.

The decision to leave asbestos alone, encapsulate it, or removing asbestos depends largely on the type of material, its location, its condition, and its exposure to mechanical damage or fiber release.

Comments at each example shown in this document indicate the reasons that further asbestos testing or removal are likely to be needed or likely to be unnecessary.

Human exposure to airborne asbestos fibers has been linked to asbestosis and is a health hazard.

Here is a series of photographs of places I've found common asbestos materials in buildings, and also where I've found recognizable asbestos in a few surprise locations.

Tremolite asbestos microphotograph © D Friedman at InspectApedia.com We also look at asbestos fibers in our forensic microscopy lab, but we're addressing on-site visual inspection for asbestos here, not polarized-light microscopy such as our lab photo of crocidolite.

Curved asbestos fibers chrysotile. Straight asbestos fibers are amphiboles. The five amphiboles include amosite, anthophyllite, tremolite, actinolite, crocidolite. Chrysotile is the most commonly-found asbestos fiber.

The carcinogenicity of asbestos varies according to fiber length and diameter. The most dangerous fibers were those longer than 8microns and less than 1.5 microns in diameter.

Asbestos fibers shorter than 3-5 microns in length were reported to have a very low, if any, carcinogenicity.

(According to McCrone who in turn quoted studies by King, Klosterkotter, Hilscher, Davis Stanton, Pott, eta als.)

 

The Essential Asbestos Questions to Ask in Assessing the Asbestos Hazard Risk in a Building

Toddler on a kitchen floor with asbestos-suspect tiles in poor condition (C) InspectApedia.com reader contributionWalter McCrone posed the following 5 key things that a building owner should know in deciding what to do about possible asbestos in his or her building:

  1. Are fibers present?
  2. Are they asbestos?
  3. If there are asbestos fibers present, in what proportion of the total?
  4. What other substances are present

     (cellulose fibers, mineral wool, fiberglass, vermiculite, talc, perlite, pumice, diatomaceous earth, organic fibers, clays, glass powder, quartz, calcite, gypsum (drywall dust), plaster dust, etc.) [some additions by DJF]
  5. What is Friability (how easily are particles released into the air), effectiveness of existing isolation or encapsulation.

    [McCrone refers to asbestos materials which are friable - and so are more likely to be present in air, dust, or the environment.

    Adbestos-containing floor tiles do not release high levels of asbestos fibers unless they are subjected to abrasion.

    But the kitchen floor shown in this photo is in poor condition and could be a source of airborne asbestos as they continue to break up under foot traffic, even under disturbance by the feet of a toddler.

    See ASBESTOS FLOORING HAZARD LEVEL ASSESSMENT for details.

McCrone's five questions are focused on the examination of a particle sample, probably an air sample of an indoor environment being tested for asbestos. Field experience suggests adding a 6th and a 7th question:

  1. Is there obvious, visibly recognizable asbestos or asbestos-suspect material in the building? 

    (Some building materials are unmistakably asbestos or asbestos-containing and can be identified without lab analysis. They are shown in photographs provided below.)
  2. Is the asbestos friable? Perhaps re-stating #5 above in a compound question on friability: what is the general condition of the asbestos material?

    Is it damaged and thus more likely to be friable? Is it in a location which is likely to move asbestos particles into an occupied space by air movement or by human movement?

In effect, these questions assist in evaluating the potential asbestos hazard in a building. Simply looking at a snapshot of airborne asbestos particles is very unreliable.

Our work examining airborne particles in a large number of buildings indicates that very significant variations in the level of airborne particles (of all kinds) occur as a result of variations in normal building activity such as whether or not people are even in the building, fans being turned on or off, windows open or shut, vacuuming of surfaces during "cleaning", etc.

So a "low" number in any airborne particle measurement is not, alone, reliable in characterizing building risk. [DF]

Reader Question: extent hazard from asbestos containing floor tiles that are damaged by flooding

(Oct 26, 2014) Jack S said:

Our basement has what appears to be Armstrong Palimino Beige tiles - the mix of beige, brown and green colors. The basement has flooded on numerous occasions and some of the tiles have pulled loose or buckled slightly.

How concerned should we be about the condition of this floor posing health risks?

Reply:

Flooding that produces loose floor tiles mean that they can become broken up - a possible source of airborne asbestos dust in the building. Without knowing the actual condition of your floor it's hard to be more specific about the actual risk level without a competent onsite inspection.

Meanwhile don't create a risk by making a dusty mess nor should you use a household vacuum cleaner in the area as those actions may increase the level of airborne dust and debris.

You will want to take a look at the asbestos floor hazard reduction articles we list below.


...

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ASBESTOS RISK ASSESSMENT at InspectApedia.com - online encyclopedia of building & environmental inspection, testing, diagnosis, repair, & problem prevention advice.


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Comments

Danielle J. · Oct 21, 2024

We have what I believe is asbestos tiling in our basement (9x9 tiles, house built in 1961). The washer and dryer are both on the tiles. Is it safe to use them or will the vibrations disturb the asbestos?

InspectApedia DF (mod) · Oct 22, 2024

@Danielle J.,

Vibration alone will not harm the tiles and so that isn't going to cause an asbestos risk. If they are in good condition, and there isn't any sawing, grinding, chopping of the tiles, it's fine. If you decide that you want a different flooring, simply leave the tile in place and cover with the new flooring.

You can read more in the article found in the Recommended Articles list above:
ASBESTOS FLOORING HAZARD REDUCTION

Danielle J. · Oct 21, 2024

We purchased a house built in 1961 in the Philadelphia area. We think these tiles are likely contain asbestos. There are tiles in the laundry room and then carpeting in the entertainment area (where we hang out, workout, play with our son). We are pretty positive that the tiles are under the carpet. We have no idea if they sealed and then carpeted or just carpeted. Would you recommend removing the carpet, checking the condition of the tiles, sealing and re-carpeting or should the carpet be an adequate barrier?

InspectApedia DF (mod) · Oct 22, 2024

@Danielle J.,

The carpeting is an adequate barrier over the tile. No need to remove, test, and re-cover.

Greg · Dec 10, 2022

We moved into a house built in 1908 that still has it original boiler and piper work. The inspector let us know most of the heating system insulation was likely made of asbestos materials. From looking at example photos on this site I can tell the pipe joints are likely covered in asbestos-like cement but I haven't seen anything that looks a lot like our pipe wrap. It is very dense looking, seems to be brown, and is wrapped in a thin gauze-like fabric. I did see one picture that said this was maybe brown cellulose but I can't tell. Does this wrap look like it would contain asbestos? The gauze outer wrap is coming off in some places so I am wondering if we need to encapsulate or remove it.

InspectApedia (Editor) (mod) · Dec 10, 2022

@Greg,

That looks like a mineral fiber insulation material. It certainly doesn't have the gray corrugated paper look the characterizes traditional asbestos pipe insulation.

Compare your pipe insulation with that shown at

inspectapedia.com/hazmat/Asbestos_Pipe_Insulation.php

ASBESTOS PIPE INSULATION


Let me know what you think.

Greg · Dec 10, 2022

@InspectApedia (Editor), thank you very much for your response!

It looks much more densely packed than the examples at that link and does not have a corrugated structure to it. Overall it also does not seem as white/gray as the examples too, it looks more like a light brown. Does a mineral fiber not contain asbestos? Here is a closer picture of the material. I also havent seen snything quite like this quaze outer wrap. Is there a chance that could also contain asbestos? The fiber seems to be in good shape but the guaze has split at the base of the pipe in many spots and is unwrapping in one place.

Thank you for your help!

InspectApedia (Editor) (mod) · Dec 10, 2022

@Greg,

Looks like a jute- or burlap- wrapped felt

Anonymous by private email (mod) · Dec 24, 2021

RE-posting from private email

Anonymous asked:

I have a question/concern regarding asbestos. In my previous workplace, old portable electrical fan heaters were used for additional heating on cold winter days. Later, I have become aware that such heaters may contain asbestos. Hence, I would like to ask: Do such old electrical fan heaters release free asbestos fibers during operation?

It has passed almost 5 years since I moved to another company. However, I still use wool sweaters and winter coats from that time during the winter season. I am now starting to worry whether my clothes can still be contaminated with asbestos, and if I should dispose them of.

I would appreciate your advice!

Inspectapedia Com Moderator (mod) · Dec 24, 2021

@Anonymous by private email,

Thank you for the asbestos in heaters hazard question.

A fictional but nevertheless expert and smart medical forensic detective (Thorndyke) remarks in Richard Austin Freeman's (1862-1943) "The Vanishing Man ..."

... there is no use in speculating a priori; we should have to reconstruct a purely imaginary situation, the circumstances of which are unknown to us, and we should almost certainly reconstruct it wrong.

That's what our discussion here is being pressed to do.

We have no idea if there even was an asbestos exposure, no idea of the level or duration of exposure nor of what cleaning was done later.

So what remains possible is mere speculation - for what it's worth, but probably not much:


Even if there was asbestos dust - which is absolutely not proven simply by having been near an electric heater - and even if some of that got onto your clothing five years ago, if you've washed and used the clothes since then, there is no reasonable chance that you could detect any meaningful amount of remaining asbestos from that possible source.

danjoefriedman (mod) · Oct 21, 2018

Adsm take a look at

inspectapedia.com/hazmat/Asbestos-Floor-Removal.php

Adam · Oct 20, 2018

What do I do I can I help

 

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