Anyone here work in asbestos industry?

George_Michael

Furts wrote: »

Everybody has been exposed to asbestos during their life, and here an example is brake dust from millions of vehicles on our roads.

Everybody?
The chances of anyone under the age of 19 having been exposed to asbestos from brake linings is very low because this was banned in 1999. (apart from vehicles built before 1973 which could continue to have brakes with asbestos in them until a few years later).

phill99

George_Michael wrote: »

Everybody?
The chances of anyone under the age of 19 having been exposed to asbestos from brake linings is very low because this was banned in 1999. (apart from vehicles built before 1973 which could continue to have brakes with asbestos in them until a few years later).

Asbestos exists in 95% of the UK building stock. It was still used in construction up to 20 years ago.


The stress related to paranoia about asbestos will do more harm than the asbestos it self.

Furts

Advice_wanted wrote: »

Sadly I have a close family member who died of mesothelioma so as a mother of young children it's something that worries me. (Plus as someone with their genes died of it that also worries me.. Admittedly he had high industrial exposure)

You persist in worrying in the face of comments posted here. Let us say you have breathed in asbestos what can you do? You cannot turn back the clock. But if at the age 60-80 this becomes a (highly unlikely) reason for your demise it is too late to change matters. I, and millions of others in the construction industry, have been subject to more asbestos than you are likely to have been. Nothing we can do about this. We just continue with our daily lives. You should do the same.

Advice_wanted

You're quite right Furts.

My thread was started to answer a specific question about fibres found on a shoe but annoyingly this forum won't allow me to post a link as I am a new user

EachPenny

Advice_wanted wrote: »

My thread was started to answer a specific question about fibres found on a shoe but annoyingly this forum won't allow me to post a link as I am a new user

It is impossible to say for sure from a picture anyway.

If you asked me for a complete guess based on the information you've given I'd say that short 'waveyish' fibres sound more like something from a carpet or possibly a dust sheet. If they got picked up by and remained stuck to a shoe then I'd go as far as saying they might be some form of synthetic fibre which is stuck to the shoe due to static.

But if you want a 100% certain answer you'd need to carefully collect some of the fibres and send them off to an asbestos testing company (who will charge you) to have them tested.

But as Furts and others have suggested, it is probably best to forget all about it.

Advice_wanted

Thanks for the reply.

So would AIB release long visible fibres? when the debris is being cleaned up after removed is it common to see the actual fibres away from the rest of the material?

EachPenny

Advice_wanted wrote: »

So would AIB release long visible fibres? when the debris is being cleaned up after removed is it common to see the actual fibres away from the rest of the material?

It depends what kind of fibres were in the AIB to start with, and how they were damaged. Asbestos fibres can break into any length shorter than they were to start with.

My response was on the basis of forgetting anything about asbestos and what I'd say if someone said they found short wavy fibres stuck to their shoe - the most likely source would be a synthetic material like carpet.

Jackmydad

As others have said, there's no real way to tell what any fibre is without testing.
Lots of us will have been exposed to asbestos in one way or another.
Plenty of us worked in industry when the stuff was still used.

HSE give advice.
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/guidance/a0.pdf

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/guidance/em4.pdf