ASBESTOS

Asbestos is still a problem to beware of.  We are having a house in Devon refurbished and work has had to stop on three occasions after asbestos was discovered. Vinyl asbestos tiles in kitchen and bathrooms (not really too much of a problem AFAIK), asbestos rope behind the fireplace, and the last most serious delay being for 3 weeks after discovering loose asbestos fibre when demolishing an old boiler cupboard..  It had been loosely tipped into a void around pipes without any binding.  The house was built in the 60's so relatively recent.  It makes me wonder what happened to the workmen.

Removal is quite a business, with notification to Health and Safety, laboratory testing and removal be a specialist company. 

David,

Asbestos was banned more as a political decision rather than a H&S issue. We all agree that loose asbestos fibres can cause asbestosis if someone is subjected to it on a daily basis and is similar to coal miners getting black lung disease. 

Did we ban coal because of that?  No, of course not; but we did clean the air at the coalface and use masks as appropriate.

So you should do the same mask up and remove the fibres into a sealed bag marked danger asbestos or get a specialist firm to do it for you, if you are not the owner of the property you are renovating.

In Africa and India asbestos sheets are still being installed as the preferred roof covering as they do not rust and in fact there are still many farm buildings and even prefab houses made of asbestos here in UK which  cause no health problems at all to their users if undisturbed.

If only they had used asbestos to insulate Grenfell tower many lives could have been saved don't you think?  Asbestos is the ideal flameproof material.