Hi, My first post. I am taking off the original bathroom tiles in a house built in 1956. The tiles are bed in what appears to be cement mortar. It is nothing like modern tile adhesive. I have heard that asbestos was put in all sorts of things back then. Any chance they may be asbestos in the mortar?
Any chance of asbestos in 1950's tile cement?
- Thread starter Rog200455
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Oh, there might be, but I wouldn't worry about it too much.
You see, asbestos is a 3 sided coin. On the one hand, it's true that inhaling asbestos fibers has been linked to lung diseases. But, it's also true that asbestos is one of the most abundant minerals in this planet's crust, and anyone who goes outdoors can't really avoid being exposed to it.
For example, virtually all of the rock in California is asbestos bearing rock, and it's common to use those rocks to make the gravel roads that run through the parks in the San Fransisco Bay area. And, because the stones grind against each other as car tires drive over those roads, considerable amounts of asbestos is contained in the dust kicked up by the car tires.
IN FACT, the airborne asbestos counts in the parks in the San Fransisco Bay area have been measured to be 50 times as high as would be allowed in a workplace without special protective clothing being provided for the workers! And, I got that directly from the OSHA's own web site (Occupational Safety and Health Administration). Also, merely being downwind of any blasting activity in California (to clear a path for a road or railway or whatever) would be considered a "hazardous activity" because of the high asbestos content in the dust produced by blasting. Also, the rock around Lake Michigan is also high in asbestos, and that means the soil over that rock also contains plenty of asbestos. Rain water runoff that falls on the ground carries those asbestos fibers into the rivers and then into Lake Michigan where the City of Duluth gets it's drinking water from. On a typical day, anyone drinking a glass of tap water in Duluth will swallow about 7 million asbestos fibers in each glass.
Really, the bottom line is that we really don't know enough about lots of things to say whether they will or won't harm us and/or under what conditions they harm us.
Since the early 1950's, there was a HUGE clinical study done in North America. Starting in about 1952, most new homes were built with copper piping that was assembled with lead soldered joints. For about 50 years, no one ever noticed any difference in the overall health of babies and stay-at-home moms that lived in newer homes with copper plumbing pipes. For all intents and purposes, the health of those people was the same as babies raised in older homes with threaded iron water supply pipes and their stay-at-home mothers. Then, one day in California, some high school kids decide they're going to test the water from their school's drinking fountain for lead contamination, and find out it contains plenty of lead, and the only source of it was the lead solder in the piping joints. So now, all the solder we're using on supply piping is all lead free to avoid the health hazards of lead in our drinking water.
But, wait a minute, if no one ever noticed any difference in the health of people living in newer homes with lead soldered joints over the course of 50 years, then doesn't that mean that lead soldered joints ARE NOT a health risk? Of course it does, the fact that we did the experiment by accident proves that lead in solder joints isn't a concern. If lead soldered joints caused health problems, we woulda seen the effects of it in the health of people living in newer homes versus older homes. The whole ban on lead solder is a PRECAUTIONARY move simply because we know that lead does cause health problems in babies. But, we really don't know enough about the problem to know why lead will cause problems in some cases and not others.
And asbestos is the same way. People in San Fransisco and Duluth live full lives and die at ripe old ages for reasons other than asbestos poisoning or lung cancer too.
If you're concerned about it, then have someone spraying a mist of water while you take the tile off. It's the inhalation of asbestos fibers that's supposedly linked to lung diseases. SO FAR, we're not aware of any health problems associated with swallowing asbestos fibers. But, truth be known, 5o years ago we weren't aware of any health problems associated with inhaling asbestos fibers either.
So, like I say, it's a 3 sided coin. We just don't know enough about it to know if it's gonna affect your health. Certainly, working in an asbestos factory is bad for your lungs. We know that much at least.
You see, asbestos is a 3 sided coin. On the one hand, it's true that inhaling asbestos fibers has been linked to lung diseases. But, it's also true that asbestos is one of the most abundant minerals in this planet's crust, and anyone who goes outdoors can't really avoid being exposed to it.
For example, virtually all of the rock in California is asbestos bearing rock, and it's common to use those rocks to make the gravel roads that run through the parks in the San Fransisco Bay area. And, because the stones grind against each other as car tires drive over those roads, considerable amounts of asbestos is contained in the dust kicked up by the car tires.
IN FACT, the airborne asbestos counts in the parks in the San Fransisco Bay area have been measured to be 50 times as high as would be allowed in a workplace without special protective clothing being provided for the workers! And, I got that directly from the OSHA's own web site (Occupational Safety and Health Administration). Also, merely being downwind of any blasting activity in California (to clear a path for a road or railway or whatever) would be considered a "hazardous activity" because of the high asbestos content in the dust produced by blasting. Also, the rock around Lake Michigan is also high in asbestos, and that means the soil over that rock also contains plenty of asbestos. Rain water runoff that falls on the ground carries those asbestos fibers into the rivers and then into Lake Michigan where the City of Duluth gets it's drinking water from. On a typical day, anyone drinking a glass of tap water in Duluth will swallow about 7 million asbestos fibers in each glass.
Really, the bottom line is that we really don't know enough about lots of things to say whether they will or won't harm us and/or under what conditions they harm us.
Since the early 1950's, there was a HUGE clinical study done in North America. Starting in about 1952, most new homes were built with copper piping that was assembled with lead soldered joints. For about 50 years, no one ever noticed any difference in the overall health of babies and stay-at-home moms that lived in newer homes with copper plumbing pipes. For all intents and purposes, the health of those people was the same as babies raised in older homes with threaded iron water supply pipes and their stay-at-home mothers. Then, one day in California, some high school kids decide they're going to test the water from their school's drinking fountain for lead contamination, and find out it contains plenty of lead, and the only source of it was the lead solder in the piping joints. So now, all the solder we're using on supply piping is all lead free to avoid the health hazards of lead in our drinking water.
But, wait a minute, if no one ever noticed any difference in the health of people living in newer homes with lead soldered joints over the course of 50 years, then doesn't that mean that lead soldered joints ARE NOT a health risk? Of course it does, the fact that we did the experiment by accident proves that lead in solder joints isn't a concern. If lead soldered joints caused health problems, we woulda seen the effects of it in the health of people living in newer homes versus older homes. The whole ban on lead solder is a PRECAUTIONARY move simply because we know that lead does cause health problems in babies. But, we really don't know enough about the problem to know why lead will cause problems in some cases and not others.
And asbestos is the same way. People in San Fransisco and Duluth live full lives and die at ripe old ages for reasons other than asbestos poisoning or lung cancer too.
If you're concerned about it, then have someone spraying a mist of water while you take the tile off. It's the inhalation of asbestos fibers that's supposedly linked to lung diseases. SO FAR, we're not aware of any health problems associated with swallowing asbestos fibers. But, truth be known, 5o years ago we weren't aware of any health problems associated with inhaling asbestos fibers either.
So, like I say, it's a 3 sided coin. We just don't know enough about it to know if it's gonna affect your health. Certainly, working in an asbestos factory is bad for your lungs. We know that much at least.
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