Homeowners facing renovation or remodeling projects have numerous resources available to them online. A quick search for ‘asbestos testing austin’ reveals various listings including asbestos laboratories, consultants, asbestos removal companies and others.
Included among the results are a number of ‘forums’ where individuals can ask for help and receive help from so-called experts. But here’s where the danger lies. These ‘experts’ may have other motives or they may just be providing information based on hearsay or other misconceptions.
Here’s an example from a fairly popular website called City-Data.com. A forum poster is concerned with the possibility of asbestos in ceiling tiles and states, “Also, is there a way you can just tell by looking at them whether they contain anything harmful like asbestos?”
While some forum members advise him to send the sample to a laboratory for asbestos testing, one member says the following,
“One quick way to rule out asbestos is to look at the core of the tile. If it is brown/tan, it is not likely asbestos.
If the core is white or gray, then there is a chance it could be asbestos. It may also just be cellulose (the most common material of ceiling tiles).
Have it tested for sure, it should not be that much money. If I do any sampling during a home inspection, I just charge the lab fee and enough to cover shipping. If I go out just for asbestos, I will charge a trip fee.”
The person posting this advice is a Home Inspector and according to forum statistics he has over 1800 posts on the forum. His advice here is especially misleading, irresponsible and dangerous in that he believes that you can look at a material and determine whether it has asbestos based on its color.
The fact is that color is absolutely not an indicator of the absence or presence of asbestos in any type of building material. In the hundreds of thousands of samples that Omni Environmental has analyzed we have identified the presence of asbestos in ceiling tiles or materials of all colors.
His statement is made even more irresponsible by the fact that some ceiling tiles contain Amosite asbestos which is potentially more dangerous than the chrysotile asbestos used in other ceiling tiles.
The bottom line is never assume that a material is asbestos free. If you are doing some remodeling or renovation on a home that was built before the early 1980’s and you should consider testing for asbestos any material that may be disturbed.
Comments are closed