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I blew out brake drum dust about 45 years ago almost every day and still smoke like an a hole, no problem yet. One of the asbestos companies being sued never had an employee come down with anything, must be a lawyer thing. Gargle with mercury, works for me. View Quote |
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Those are asphalt shingles not asbestos. The little crumbly rocks on top of the tar are for fire proofing. The black inside is the asphalt tar. It gets dried up and crumbly after 20 years or so. Asbestos shingles have a much smoother surface and usually have a lichen/mossy sun bleached look. They have a uniform light fiber compisition and are not black inside. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
Those are asphalt shingles not asbestos. The little crumbly rocks on top of the tar are for fire proofing. The black inside is the asphalt tar. It gets dried up and crumbly after 20 years or so. Asbestos shingles have a much smoother surface and usually have a lichen/mossy sun bleached look. They have a uniform light fiber compisition and are not black inside. Quoted:
Tar and fiberglass, with little rocks stuck on top. Phew... feel like I dodged a bullet there. Not only that, but looking at pics of the asbestos roofing, I see the siding on my dad's apartment looks just like some of those pics. I think he's going to be ripping into those in a few months to put new siding on. I better say something Thanks again guys |
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I have been in the asbestos industry for over 20 years.
That type of shingle can contain asbestos but even if it does the asbestos fibers pretty much stay bound in the matrix. Any exposure you had was likely minimal. You got lucky., |
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http://i.imgur.com/9Flt5nS.jpg Just a pile of broken shingles now http://i.imgur.com/1sqOloZ.jpg Here's one up close http://i.imgur.com/aacu4hn.jpg 2nd http://i.imgur.com/CsCSSWV.jpg Anyone know if these are asbestos? It was roofed in the 60s or 70s I think View Quote Nobody can really tell without a microscope, but it sure isn't going to be among the more dangerous forms of asbestos if it's in there. You worry more about things like fluffy pipe insulation that starts breaking up, stuff that can be easily broken into dust with your bare hands. Some might even say materials like that were included in the hysteria just for the purpose of completeness and because of the threat to the makers of the product and less because of the threat posed to the end user, but my certs all lapsed and I don't know a thing about a thing anymore. |
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Didnt mean to downplay it quite like that. Just meant that being around it a few times isnt going to do anything to you. Seems everything is overly hyped these days. Then you get the late night lawyer commercials. Curious, how, and for how long, were your family members exposed? View Quote I do agree that exposure over time does increase your risk severely, but who's to say that one good time of filling your lungs with the particles couldn't give you the disease? |
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We have to get asbestos surveys all the time on jobs we're bidding. Never see asbestos down here in the asphalt shingles. Not saying it can't happen but's probably rare. The only asbestos we see down here besides the Roofing TILES (which your photos are not), is in the mastic. Companies were still adding asbestos to mastics and cements/coatings in the 90's as a fiber to thicken and a bonding agent.(ie: Fibered roof cement). Don't see friable material much on a roof.
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While we are on this subject, I have a question. Does anyone know if asbestos was ever used as a spray on insulation for the inside of metal buildings?
I used to work in a shop that was built back in the 50's, and that stuff was sprayed on all the walls and ceilings. When it would rain, big clumps of it would fall down, then get run over by the golf carts kicking up dust clouds. Then on top of that, I'd have to sweep the shop up weekly, creating even more dust. This was back in the late 90's and none of my family had gotten sick yet. I really didn't know much about how bad asbestos is either. Just something that always weighed on my mind. I really hope it was just fiberglass. |
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A newly released report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) proclaims an increase in mortality and morbidity of patients diagnosed with mesothelioma. Since this type of cancer is mostly due to asbestos exposure and there has been wide spread educational programs in place for decades telling people to avoid working unprotected in asbestos containing areas (i.e., tearing down older buildings), it was believed that the deaths due to mesothelioma would have peaked and we would now be in a decline. That does not appear to be the case. The authors noted in their discussion that “The annual number of malignant mesothelioma deaths is increasing, particularly among persons aged =85 years, most likely representing exposure many years ago. However, although malignant mesothelioma deaths decreased in persons aged 35–64 years, the continuing occurrence of mesothelioma deaths among persons aged <55 years suggests ongoing occupational and environmental exposures to asbestos fibers and other causative EMPs, despite regulatory actions by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Environmental Protection Agency aimed at limiting asbestos exposure.” In a press release, the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation noted they are not surprised by the increase as they have long believed asbestos exposure continues to be prevalent in our environment despite regulations, due to decades of heavy use in the construction of homes, schools, and government buildings. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6608a3.htm?s_cid=mm6608a3_w View Quote Lol, the abatements people 20-55 have lived through probably kicked up more shit than the initial installs and subsequent operation and maintenance ever did. It also aint like the fibers (in the carcinogenic range, a narrow range of very small fibers) degrade or are particularly apt to settle. They're practically weightless. Then there's the fact that asbestos is a common naturally occurring mineral. It is in the fucking ground. Many areas will never have an outdoor atmosphere completely free of asbestos. Any sort of construction or soil movement kicks it up. Mesothelioma is like the lottery. The more tickets you buy the better your chances, but the odds are that out of a population as large as we have occasionally somebody's going to win on their very first ticket. They're not going to completely eliminate mesothelioma through asbestos eradication. Neva gon happen. |
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I think it depends on your propensity to get lung cancer....
My grandmother as a young girl in the 20's and 30's worked at the John's Manville plant in Manville, NJ....breathed asbestos all day long...never had a lung issue, died at 89 from a brain anyuerism....never a hint of issues from the asbestos... But you should at least have been wearing a dust mask.... |
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I used to do asbestos/lead abatement. You're safe. You didn't release much and most of that blew away with the wind. Breaking a shingle won't magically release many fibers, just as breaking the old 9" x 9" asbestos tiles didn't release much of anything.
For comparison, when doing asbestos roofs we didn't build a containment field around the roof to catch fibers because it was negligible, but when we removed asbestos insulation from outdoor pipes in oil refineries we did because insulation releases a shitload of fibers. We also removed transite panels from their oil tanks but didn't have to build containment because transite is non-friable. We didn't have to build containment fields for floor tiles either. We just lined the bottom 36" of wall with poly but that was more to protect the walls from the solvent we used to remove the mastic than asbestos fiber contamination. In other words, in residential housing your biggest risks are insulation and acoustic ceilings. Floor tiles and shingles not so much. As a one time thing I wouldn't worry about it, especially since shingles are non-friable. Next time buy a mask but be aware you broke a few laws that carry heavy fines. |
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While we are on this subject, I have a question. Does anyone know if asbestos was ever used as a spray on insulation for the inside of metal buildings? I used to work in a shop that was built back in the 50's, and that stuff was sprayed on all the walls and ceilings. When it would rain, big clumps of it would fall down, then get run over by the golf carts kicking up dust clouds. Then on top of that, I'd have to sweep the shop up weekly, creating even more dust. This was back in the late 90's and none of my family had gotten sick yet. I really didn't know much about how bad asbestos is either. Just something that always weighed on my mind. I really hope it was just fiberglass. View Quote Yes it was. I scraped a shitload of that stuff off steel girders. |
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It might be bad or might be fine. Either way, you can't do anything about it. Try to forget and don't do it again.
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Also, in case it has not been mentioned already, most types of asbestos do not cause cancer.
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Iowa A construction and demolition debris recycler in Iowa has sampled loads of shingles since 1999. The shingles are sampled by taking random grab samples from a load and having a laboratory analyze for asbestos using polarized light microscopy (PLM). Out of a total of 1791 samples tested, none was found to have detectable levels of asbestos.
Maine An asphalt shingle recycler in Maine (see case study) tested 118 samples. Representative composite samples were collected on a per-incoming-load basis and analyzed using PLM. None of the samples was found to contain asbestos. Massachusetts An asphalt shingle recycler in Massachusetts tested incoming asphalt shingles on a per-load basis. A total of 2,288 composite, representative samples were taken from the incoming product. Samples were analyzed using PLM. Twelve samples contained asbestos, but 11 contained less than 1% [NESHAP defines ACM as any material containing more than 1% asbestos]. The twelfth sample had 2% asbesto. These results, as defined by NESHAP, show only 1 in 2, 288 samples had sufficient asbestos to categorize it as ACM. Samples were also collected from the tarpaper and the outgoing finished product and analyzed using PLM. Out of 69 tarpaper samples, two contained over 5% asbestos and two contained less than 1% asbestos. Out of 109 finished, outgoing product samples, two contained less than 1% asbestos. (see "Asbestos analysis of Post-Consumer Asphalt Shingle Waste") Missouri Testing results were provided by the Missouri Division of Environmental Quality. During an asbestos survey, six shingle samples were collected and analyzed with PLM. No asbestos was detected. Florida Shingle testing was completed as a part of the "Roof to Roads" project. Two hundred and eighty-seven samples were taken of incoming shingles: 2 tested above 1% for asbestos. Seventeen samples were also taken during the shingle grinding process. None of the samples had asbestos over 1%. shingle recycling While this may be information the OP should really read and take to heart in terms of his own personal risk exposure here, I don't believe it makes any difference in terms of the identification of shingles as asbestos containing in a regulatory sense. |
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Shit, Thanks. I'll have to see if I can get a sample of it. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Yes it was. I scraped a shitload of that stuff off steel girders. If it's falling down in chunks you might want to have the air tested too. I think it costs about $200 to have air samples taken (might be more, I've been out of the business almost 20 years). They use small pumps and let them run for a couple of hours, then send the filters out to be analyzed. |
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Going to do some google searching for a lab right now Thanks everyone so much for your help! Praying this stuff isn't asbestos, my dad got it worse than I. He did the other half and helped me with the half I did. He's one of those guys who grinds metal without eyeware, I doubt he'd use a mask even if he knew all the risks. Tough it out kind of guy View Quote Why bother now? Even if it was giant friable blankets of broke down weathered fluffy crap that you rolled around in with belt sanders in each hand, you're either gonna die from it or not. The gig's over. Nothing a lab says can change that. A quick glance at the NESHAP regs for asbestos shingles tells me they sure aren't THAT concerned with them. They're only kinda ridiculous. |
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If it's falling down in chunks you might want to have the air tested too. I think it costs about $200 to have air samples taken (might be more, I've been out of the business almost 20 years). They use small pumps and let them run for a couple of hours, then send the filters out to be analyzed. View Quote |
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Thank you for the information. It'll be a stretch to be able to get a sample of the material alone, as I don't work at that shop anymore, different division of the company. I just want to know if it is or not, for my own knowledge. One thing I don't want is to one day catch the stuff, and be sitting there thinking, "man, if I had only known this earlier, I would have done a few more fun things while I was healthy". View Quote Life is terminal. Do those things. |
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IM me. I work for a lab and will run your analysis for free. You WONT be getting a report,
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No asbestos detected in the sample MrYar. Officially its considered NDI (none detected - inconclusive) by New York State ELAP method 198.6 "Gravimetric Reduction".
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When you listen to the depostions of mesothelioma victims (as I have), they describe steam fitting in power plants or boiler rooms in terms like "the asbestos was falling like snow in a blizzard." They did that every day for years. i would work to minimize my exposure to respirable dust in the future, and not worry about it.
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Those old timers also worked with asbestos day in and day out for years. And the incidence of mesothelioma was much higher even among that group with those who smoked versus those who didn't. He's probably ok. But yeah, no sense in breathing in a bunch of known to be hazardous to health dust if you don't have to. I removed asbestos shingles from an old workshop once. They were almost all intact, so there wasn't much hazard, but I wore a respirator anyways. View Quote |
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Bought our first house in 1991.
We took off asbestos shingles. We were careful and kept dust down. 25 years later and no ill effects. Don't worry, there is plenty of shit out there that will kill you quicker. Stress, if you think about this stuff too much. |
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Been about 20 years since I worked that field but the studies that I recall from then was that there was never a mesothelioma case in a nonsmoker. Something to think about before lighting up that cigarette. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes |
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That's not what they told us. IIRC there was 10x the risk for smokers though. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Do you smoke? Something to think about before lighting up that cigarette. I believe cancer cases start in your genes and are just "luck of the draw" combined with exposure. Why else would two people, same sex, same age, same ethnic origin, same exposures have different outcomes. |
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The keyword here is short term exposure. Is it good to breathe the shit in? Absolutely not. Is ripping off a roof going to hurt you? Probably not.
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