Where is asbestos used?

Answer 1

Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral that breaks easilly into long fibers.

Since asbestos has an ability to withstand heat, it's been popular for use where heat insulation is needed. These include piping, insulation--anyplaces where high temperatures are, or where the potential for fire is high, since it will not burn. It was especially useful for wrapping pipes, lining boilers and wrapping engines and other large machinery to protect them from fire. In the middle part of the 20th century it was widely used in ships (cruise ships, Navy ships, etc.), shipyards, manufacturing plants, and many other places.

More common household applications include; wall textures (almost all wall texture applied to drywall between 1940-1980 is asbestos containing), sheet vinyl up to the late 1980's, floor mastics even today, pipe wraps especially associated with boiler units and many types of roofing mateiral.

Asbestos is also resistant to the corrosive action of many acids. This, together with its heat resistant properties, made it useful as heat pads and protective gloves in laboratories.

Because the fibers could be woven into cloth, much as cotton is, it had use in fire-proof curtains in theatres, ad even in homes and has been found in blankets of the Roman Empire.

Because asbestos is now known to cause asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma, its use has been heavily regulated and many substitutes have been found. While not forbidden, very few products containing asbestos are offered for sale in the US at present. Any building constructed after 1980 has a lesser chance of asbestos being present than do buildings built before then.

In existing buildings, the disturbance of any materials that contain more than 1% asbestos, by weight, must be done as an asbestos removal project, with substantial protective procedures applied.