Asbestos

[Pezza832]

Hi all,

I wonder if you can help. We recently moved into a Victorian house dating back to 1860. There's artex all over the place and an electrician came round a few months ago to pop in a few new sockets and drilled into the walls in about half a dozen places - a typical example is in the photo, this stretches about six feet up to the ceiling and is about three inches wide. Now, the artex has been there for what looks like decades, at least the 60s. The electrician made a right mess and there was dust and what-not all over the place! Needless to say we got it cleaned up but is there a chance of asbestos inhalation here? And frankly, are me, my wife, our dog and the electrician gonna die a rotten death in years to come (I say that with my tongue in cheek but also with genuine apprehension)?? Thanks for any good news you may be able to bring me but don't hold back on the honesty...

All the best

 

[dan-kernow]

i think you will be fine, iv done my asbestos awearness course and i asked the tutor lots of questions about asbestos and i remember him saying one off exposure to asbestos is unlikely to cause illness in later life. and that most people who are getting ill are people who worked around the stuff for years.
but im sure there are people who like to scare monger and tell you the opposite

 

[Pezza832]

Cheers Dan, that puts my mind at rest a little. As you can see the plaster is still exposed. Should it be covered asap? I'm looking to take the skirting board off the same wall - am I being naive doing so or should I get a pro in?

 

[dan-kernow]

if you cant get it covered right away and are worried about the damaged artex there is a thing you can buy to spray over the damaged areas of the artex to stop any potential bits of asbestos being released. ive seen the professional asbestos people spary it when they go in to take away the stuff. i dont know whats its called tho. has your artex been tested for asbestos? it only contains very small amounts if it does.

 

[^woody^]

PVA mixed with water will be a temporary sealer

 

[Pezza832]

No it's not been tested so there's no guarantee its in there but I understand it's notoriously in artex of this age. What do you think to the skirting removal?

 

[dan-kernow]

take them off if you want them off

 

[Pezza832]

Ok, we're putting new flooring down and don't want beading so will replace them after the skimming and floor has been done. Appreciate your advice here! I'm hopeful that death may come later than was originally thought!

 

[^woody^]

Max out the credit cards just in case

 

[dan-kernow]

Ok, we're putting new flooring down and don't want beading so will replace them after the skimming and floor has been done. Appreciate your advice here! I'm hopeful that death may come later than was originally thought!

in all honesty i dont think your going to be at a high risk from a one off exposure to a product that contains a small amount of white asbestos. you may disturb a small amount from taking off skirting, wear a dust mask and appropriate PPE and clean up well after if your really concerned. the only person who will be at risk is your electrician who if he is going around doing this daily to asbestos creating dust over a long period of time is more than likely to have health problems. i have worked around lots and lots of products containing asbestos from roof tiles and floor tiles to artex etc etc. if you deal with in a safe way and wear the correct PPE you will be fine.

 

[Pezza832]

I've taken the skirting off and it's not really disturbed the artex too much which is good.

Thanks very much for the advice. People say, "don't 'Google' stuff like this". You can see their point as, before I asked you guys, I read a lot of stuff suggesting artex is dreadful for asbestos but its objective I suppose.

 

[dan-kernow]

people like to scare monger, people may comment later on this thread suggesting that is is dangerous. but put it this way i worked for 6 years for a plastering and external insulation company in cornwall. we had a big contract external insulating and plastering old council houses. there were some houses that had the top half cladded in tiles that contained asbestos. (only a small amount of white) obviously this had to be removed before we could put our cladding up. we took them off, a lot got smashed off basically there was a big mess of broken tiles. i did question whether we should be doing it because it contained asbestos. the reply i got was "its work isnt it" basically this was in 2008 when the rescission was kicking off. my thought on this is that if it was harmful then the housing authority who gave us the contract would of made sure that the tiles were removed by a specialist asbestos company. my personal opinion on asbestos is yes it is dangerous, but one off exposures are not going to kill you. if you do what your electrician is doing and disturbing it daily then you have a problem in years to come. some people may disagree some may agree .

 

[Newboy]

The most ridiculous statement about asbestos I've seen for a long time!

 

[dan-kernow]

what part do you think is ridiculous ?

 

[stuart45]

There is no real safe limit, although the more exposure the greater the risk.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...utting-millions-risk-deadly-lung-disease.html