What is asbestos?

Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral that has been used in a range of building materials to make them more rigid and fire resistant. It has also been used in household products like ironing boards and oven gloves. Asbestos was used extensively as a building material in Great Britain from the 1950s through to the mid 1980s.

Some areas in your home where you may find asbestos include:

• eaves, gutters and rainwater fall pipes
• fire blankets
• boilers
• garage and shed roofs
• linings for walls, ceilings and doors
• insulation panels in some storage heaters
• bath panels
• central heating flues
• loose asbestos packing between floors and in partition walls
• floor tiles
• ironing boards
• ceiling finishes

Removal Asbestos procedures
If removal is to be performed when users are still present in the building, it is usually necessary to relocate some users temporarily. Typically, the part of the building from which asbestos is being removed has to be sealed off in order to prevent contamination of the other areas. Methods of sealing off an area often include the use of Polyethylene film, duct tape and negative air pressure machines which are fitted with HEPA filters. The idea is that the contained area is pulling fresh air in as to not allow asbestos fibers into the surrounding environment.

Only a special vacuum cleaner that's designed for asbestos containment (class H) can be safely used when cleaning up during and after asbestos removal. Ordinary vacuum cleaners cannot be used, even those fitted with a HEPA filter.[1] An ordinary vacuum cleaner will expel the asbestos fibres into the room air.

If the building is closed to normal users, it may be necessary to seal it off from outside atmosphere so that no accessible air is contaminated. Examples of asbestos removal enterprises include the Jussieu Campus (begun circa 1996 and still going on as of 2005[update]) and the Tour Montparnasse (in 2005, projected duration was three years if the tower was emptied of its users, and ten years if it were not). Removal is not the only means of asbestos abatement. Asbestos and asbestos-bearing materials may be "enclosed" or "encapsulated" to prevent building occupants from being exposed to the fibers.

An asbestos-containing building that is to be torn down may have to be sealed (see third picture on right), and to have its asbestos safely removed before ordinary demolition can be performed. The asbestos removal may take longer and cost more than the actual demolition. For example, the former seat of parliament of East Germany, the Palast der Republik, was stripped of most of its asbestos between 1998 and 2001, before it was finally demolished starting in 2006.