Re:BUILDING
A Preservation Newsletter
Volume 18 - April, 2004
Published by Martin Hackl, Oak Park,
Illinois
ASBESTOS IN YOUR HOME
Asbestos is the subject of this brief Newsletter. During the years that they have been in business the Asbestos industry has worked hard to develop products, and find a marketplace for those products. For the most part, they were not lying or exaggerating about the beneficial properties of their products. However, for years, what they did not know - or what they knew and weren't telling the public, were the potential and serious health hazards associated with asbestos.
Asbestos is indeed an interesting material and has many unique qualities. To learn more about it, visit some of these web sites:
If you want to learn even more, just type the search word "asbestos" into any major search engine. There's enough there to keep you reading for about a year!
There is so much on the internet about asbestos, that when I get calls and e-mails from people regarding asbestos in their homes and questions about what to do with it, I refer them to the sites above. Because I am no expert, the best and only advice I can ever give is twofold.
The first step is to actually identify if the building material(s) in question is, or contains asbestos.
Familiarity with the products used, such as the printed sales booklet (below) can help. But in the end, a qualified professional should always be called in for identification of hazardous materials in your home.
The second step is how to deal with it. Again, the simplest and best advice I can give is to consult professionals. Asbestos removal is NOT a do-it-yourself project. Consult with your government agencies, or with architects, contractors or other building professional that you trust. And always get, and check references.
Just to give an idea of the different ways asbestos products were used in home, the following booklet was put out by a company called Carey. This is from 1938.
(click on thumbnail photos to enlarge)
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Copyright © 2004 Martin Hackl
