Asbestos That's Not a Ripoff?
Can anyone recommend an honest and fairly priced company to do asbestos removal? I’ve tried calling a few from old postings on this site but they appear to no longer be in business. We have a small job: Remove fewer than 5 inches of asbestos from pipes in basement, vacuum dirt floor, and simply throw…
Can anyone recommend an honest and fairly priced company to do asbestos removal? I’ve tried calling a few from old postings on this site but they appear to no longer be in business.
We have a small job: Remove fewer than 5 inches of asbestos from pipes in basement, vacuum dirt floor, and simply throw away a small amount of linoleum that is not glued to the floor.
BTW, I got P100 filters for the standard M3 6000 face mask. The package states, that it protects from Asbestos, Uramium and Plutonuim
Posted by: bobjohn at September 25, 2009 9:43 AM
I was taught to hide under my desk in the event of a nuclear bomb.
>Just as I would not be afraid of getting lung cancer if I smoked a single cigarette
Or even a few. But it seems that there are plenty of people who are so shit-scared of everything that they make life expensive and painful for the rest of us.
Whenever someone starts talking about asbestos I’m reminded of 1993 when I was in high school here in NYC and the Mayor Dinkins/Board of Ed delayed the start of the school year until almost October to do “emergency” asbestos abatement in public schools across all 5 boros. They still weren’t able to get everything abated and cleaned up in time at my school, and we returned to school in late Sept with plastic tarps taped over open holes in the walls, dust everywhere, exposed pipes, etc. Somehow the asbestos present for 50+ years, that millions of students and teachers were exposed to, became an emergency all of a sudden.
Mesothelioma is a form of lung cancer caused by years and years of exposure to airborne asbestos. There is an entire industry of lawyers (ambulance chasers) dedicated to asbestos litigation who have made a ton of money because of the identifiable correlation between asbestos and lung cancer. However, the most authoritative study of health effects of asbestos studied 100,000 men, of whom 17,800 all worked in the asbestos industry (“heavy occupational asbestos exposure”). It compared smoking cigarettes to asbestos exposure and found that cigarette smokers who didn’t work in the asbestos industry were more than twice as likely to die from lung cancer as non-smokers who worked in the asbestos industry. In the study we are talking about people exposed to asbestos on a daily basis, as a career, before the gov’t realized it was a dangerous fiber; not people who were incidentally exposed to it while doing work in their house. Yes, both smokers and asbestos workers faced a much higher risk of lung cancer than the control group (and considerably higher if they were exposed to both).
Point being, I personally would not be afraid of removing a 5″ segment myself as long as I was wearing a mask, keeping it wet and bagging it carefully. Just as I would not be afraid of getting lung cancer if I smoked a single cigarette.
zberlin: what fear-mongering. Cleaning up small amounts of asbestos yourself will cause no harm.
But then look at the EPA cleanup suggestions for broken CFL’s, which sound like you’re about to die of mercury poisoning. It’s a matter of proportion
BTW, I got P100 filters for the standard M3 6000 face mask. The package states, that it protects from Asbestos, Uramium and Plutonuim
Mopar – I had a really terrific & savvy guy help me a few years ago. Phone Joe Bova – 718 234 7437 or try his pager – 917 457 2291. He has a cell but prefers the pager when he’s on site somewhere. 917 697 1853.
PS: Mopar, you can simply throw the linoleum out. Whether or not it has asbestos in it, the asbestos is not considered ‘friable’. Bag it up and get rid of it, don’t get ripped off by someone who will tell you it hazardous waste. Not so.
Mopar, may as well write your will because according to some people you’re already dead, you just don’t know it.
I assume the insulation you have is asbestos cement, if you’re having trouble getting it off. Probably on an elbow, right? You CAN get it off. You will need to spray it with water and a dilute solution of dishwasing soap. Several times. The soap helps it penetrate. You then hit it with a hammer and chisel. As you open a gap, keep spraying. Often you can break it into two halves and pull it off. If there’s anything left, you go after it with a wire brush or scraper.
Hell, 5″? I’d do it for a bottle of wine, lol.
Alternately, you could simply encapsulate it. You could wrap it around with rubberized insulating tape and leave it alone. There’s nothing wrong with that either.
More problematic is the dirt floor. Have you had the dirt tested or are you merely theorizing here? Assuming it is freaking you out, you would wet it and remove the top layer of dirt, let’s say 1/4″, with a shovel.
Here also encapsulation may be a better choice. You could add a cheap floor covering. You could add another inch of dirt. You could cover with plastic sheeting and add dirt.
Or you could not worry about it. Any asbestos fibers that are contaminated with dirt will be heavier than air and will not float around.
There are trace amounts of asbestos everywhere. Asbestos is a natural material that outcrops the earth in any number of places. If you don’t smoke you have considerably less risk, and in any case the risk is very low for a single abatement especially if you wear the proper mask. I think I sent you a link a while ago to mcmaster.com and to the right masks. Standard dirt and dust masks are not rated for asbestos.
eman, I know you do boilers and so are concerned, but you should examine the asbestos removal industry before calling homeowners greedy. Asbestos lawyers have become some of the richest people in the country. Often in cahoots with shady medical people like this one.
http://www.legalnewsline.com/news/219257-harron-others-named-in-miss.-suit-over-asbestos-scheme
600,000 people who were told that they were ill, when they weren’t.
You originally asked for a reputable remover. I have used Mendy of Asbestway on Washinton Ave. Don’t know if it will help but you can say Bruce recommended him.