Asbestos Safety: How Can You Be Exposed?

FACT: There is no safe level of exposure to Asbestos.

Experts do tell us that undisturbed asbestos is safe, and that’s true, but there are many ways for formerly “safe” asbestos to become dangerous. Here are a few:

Asbestos Safety and Demolition

When older buildings are demolished, asbestos can enter the environment via roof tiles, flooring, pipe and wall insulation, and other building materials used in times gone by. Before demolition, older buildings must be inspected for asbestos and all asbestos materials removed professionally to protect the public.

Asbestos Safety and Renovation

Do you love spending your weekends doing DIY home renovation projects? If you have an older home. you might disturb asbestos materials without realizing it. Pulling up that old vinyl floor tile or removing insulation from that old water heater could get you very, very sick. Make sure you are not dealing with asbestos before you start. Check here for common places asbestos could be found in your home.

Asbestos Safety and Fire

Asbestos is fire resistant–one of the reasons it was used for so many things–but it can also become exposed in a fire. An entire Dutch city was shut down just last month due to a “massive asbestos leak” caused by a fire. Watch this video for more.

Asbestos Safety and Natural Disaster

Here in California, we are always expecting “the big one”–a major earthquake. But any earthquake, flood, or storm can expose asbestos to the environment by damaging homes and buildings that contain asbestos materials. We cannot control these events nor the substances exposed by them.

The bottom line is that asbestos is never safe and you never know what is going to happen in the future, whether it’s a decision to replace a kitchen floor or a hurricane. If you know you have asbestos in your home, we recommend that you be proactive and have it removed by a professional asbestos removal company. An ounce of prevention could save you a ton of anxiety.