Residential Asbestos Abatement- Reducing The Risk Of Asbestos Diseases

by Kirsten Hawkins

The Firms and Cost Incurred in Asbestos Abatement Residential asbestos abatement is the process to determine if a material is asbestos containing and to take necessary steps removal of asbestos containing materials from the residential buildings. During residential abatement processes you have to ensure that the material is sampled and analyzed by an analytical laboratory.

A Quick Guide to Asbestos and Health Issues

Gerard Simington

Unless you have been completely out of touch, you have probably heard all the hubbub about the dangers of asbestos. So, what is the big deal?

A Quick Guide to Asbestos and Health Issues

Asbestos is a fibrous material that is highly resistant to burning. It has a long history. While it was first used on a large scale commercial basis at the turn of the twentieth century, it has actually been around much longer. In fact, the ancient Egyptians were known for using it burial clothes.

Common modern applications used to include building materials, products and automobile brake pads, which all required a fire resistant element. Asbestos is still used today, but on a fairly small scope. The reason has everything to do with health. Asbestos in and of itself is not harmful to people. What is harmful, however, is asbestos dust.

Asbestos dust is a vicious thing. Due to the chemical makeup of the material, the dust is like a cloud of fine glass particles. While they will not damage your skin, they do great damage to the lungs. Making matters worse, asbestos dust is so fine that it is easily raised from asbestos material like ceiling tiles and walls. Once in the air, it is all but invisible. Prolonged exposure, such as when working on or in a building with asbestos materials, can result in massive amounts of the toxic dust entering the lungs.

Once asbestos dust is in your lungs, you cannot expel it by coughing. That doesn’t mean the body does not try. Asbestosis is scarring of the lungs from acid created by the body in an effort to get the asbestos dust out. If this process is allowed to occur for 10 to 20 years, the lungs may stop functioning because of excess scarring. If that sounds bad, it only gets worse. Asbestos dust can lead to terminal cancer in the form of mesothelioma. [What is Mesothelioma?]

Asbestos is an excellent fire resistant material that saves us from burning while killing us in a much slower manner. Since 1989, it has been banned in the United States in all but a few commercial areas.

Gerard Simington is with FindAnAttorneyForMe.com - offering asbestos and mesothelioma legal information.

Laboratories that are accredited by the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) through the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program or which successfully participate in the asbestos bulk-analysis program of the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) can only be relied in determining the presence of asbestos.

There are certified asbestos inspectors who collect the bulk samples for determining asbestos content during the residential asbestos abatement process. These are certified asbestos inspectors and can be hired through a consulting firm. These consulting firms are registered in the yellow pages under asbestos or environmental consultants. You can also look for them under the head of residential asbestos abatement.

The asbestos inspections are conducted on a random basis, cost incurred depends on the amount of material being removed, and which method is adapted for the abatement. The residential asbestos abatement can cost from $500 to $2000.

Precautions required to be taken in Residential Asbestos Abatement Process Any asbestos removal includes the use of engineering controls to reduce the release of fibers in the environment. This is to make sure that the residential asbestos abatement process is safe and do not pose any health hazards. Engineering controls include the use of water during removal, filtered ventilation systems, and plastic barriers for isolating the work area.

Though there are no immediate health symptoms from asbestos exposure, but when getting a residential asbestos abatement program done, you should observe that containment constructed of polythene sheeting is surrounding the component(s) from which asbestos is to be removed. In cases where there is a small quantity of asbestos to be removed, you should use a glove bag.

You are entitled to request for a copy of the contractor's license, project/program work plan, the original results before the program, air-monitoring results from the analytical laboratory and a copy of the waste manifest for the disposal of the asbestos. The whole procedure of residential asbestos abatement would take a full day or possibly two days for completion.
About the Author

Kirsten Hawkins is a asbestos and mesothelioma specialist from Nashville, TN. Visit http://www.asbestosblog.org/ for information on asbestos reform, mesothelioma lawsuit news, and more.

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