Asbestos Exposure?

[wiggwamm]

Hi
I have a boiler that I think is at least over 10 years old. It recently had a new thermocouple and rope seal fitted. I later came across what I presume was part of the old seal - it was white and ropey. I picked it up and it crumbledsending lots of little particles flying across the room, me and my 2 year old.

I'm now worrying that it was asbestos rope and i've exposed us. Does anyone know if this is the most likely thing it could be?

Thanks

 

[Gary59]

Get a GRIP...............!

 

[Agile]

Most boilers stopped using asbestos about 1980.

However fiddling as you have done would give minimal exposure. Forget it. In any case asbestiosis takes about 30 years to develop.

I would advise you to give up smoking as a precaution!

Tony

 

[ollski]

If it was asbestos rope it is classed as minimal risk and has no special controls.

 

[Trance Nation]

If it was asbestos rope it is classed as minimal risk and has no special controls.

OK a good and fair point. However i have started working in an area with a large amount of ancient Glowworm & Main bbu's and am wondering if it is safe/legal/healthy for me to be constantly breaking the seals and /or replacing these ropes all day ? And yes i do wear proper gloves/masks/etc and the waste is correctly disposed of.

Is there a maximum amount of exposure im allowed to have despite appropriate ppe ?

 

[geoff@cetltd]

FFS - I used to errect prefab concrete garages

On a hot dry summers day, I dread to think how much asbestos dust I wo9uld have inhaled - that was 30 years ago

Sure' a bit of asbestos rope can kill you if attached to a gallows, don't be such a wuss

 

[ChrisR]

Asbestos cement is Crysotile asbestos - the least nasty sort (straight fibres instead of wiggly/spiral), bound up in 70% cement, so nowhere near as bad as the others. If you don't use any sort of tool on it which causes dust, it isn't too terrible.

If your ropes are collapsing, going powdery or the grey/brown asbestos types I would be very careful.
Asbestos dust used to collect in piles in the streets in some areas and people lived through it, but there are cases of one single limited exposure causing lung disease. Pneumoconiosis, emphysema, asbestosis..... varous lung cancers.

Guideline used to be 30 mins exposure to White (crysotile) being "OK", if you wear overalls, gloves, and mask. I think that was per day.

Some ropes are made of what they call "refractory silicate fibres" which one has to assume aren't so bad, but PPE would still be a b100dy good idea!

 

[Paul Barker]

I remember labouring in the 70's on a site where they were making big factory units. Summertime a man on price put up the asbestos roofing on his own, he was cutting it with a still saw type of thing all day all you saw was this guy in the midst of a cloud of dust. No protective anything.

 

[Nige F]

He might have had one type of "protective" on ..you just couldn`t see it

 

[Trance Nation]

To be fair though i wouldnt regard myself as being a "wuss", just a general concern really as its something ive never really came up against in the past.

Funny how things change tho innit - asbestos, lead pipes blah blah blah.

In 30 years we'll all discover that we have copper-itis or summit

 

[ChrisR]

Did I read somewhere that we shouldn't be servicing Netaheats because they have asbestos in them?

 

[Agile]

Better get rid of your Netaheat then Chris!

 

[namsag]

Yep some netaheats and flamingo`s an several other models had asbestos in them right up till about 1990. Local authority round my way would not even allow there engineers to change thermocouples on the flamingo new boiler fitted instead.

 

[doitall]

Talking of boilers and asbestos, this one contains about 20 bags full of the stuff.

 

[wilhelm]

jeeeez d.i.a. you could have wiped down the casing before you left.