Tips for Discovering and Handling Asbestos Exposure in Your Home
Possible asbestos exposure in your home can be difficult and stressful. You may be wondering who to call, and if you can remove the potentially hazardous material on your own. For this purpose exactly, we have put together this list of tips for discovering and handling asbestos exposure in your home.
When Should You Have Your Home Tested for Asbestos?
Determining whether asbestos is present in your home is practically impossible unless you are a trained asbestos professional. This is because it is extremely difficult to determine whether a product contains asbestos just by looking at the product. If you ever have any doubts regarding the presence of asbestos in your home, you should treat such products as if they do in fact contain asbestos. Thus, you should leave the material alone and immediately contact a trained accredited asbestos professional.
Trained and accredited asbestos professional should also be contacted in two situations. First, you should contact asbestos professionals if you plan on doing any home remodeling. Most asbestos-containing materials are found in typical building and construction products. Furthermore, home renovations disturb building materials, some of which could contain asbestos. Second, asbestos professionals should be conducted if your home has any damaged building materials. This specifically includes drywall and insulation that are falling apart or crumbling, which can contain surprisingly high levels of asbestos. An accredited and trained asbestos professional will take samples of possible asbestos-containing materials for testing in order to make an official determination whether asbestos exposure is occurring.
How Do I Handle Asbestos?
Keep calm if you discover potential asbestos-containing materials in your home. Though asbestos might be present in your home, asbestos-containing materials probably won’t pose significant health risk as long as the materials are not disturbed or damaged. Typically when asbestos-containing products in good condition are left undisturbed health risks do not arise. Instead of disturbing the asbestos-containing materials, you should take these following steps:
– Step 1: Visually check potential asbestos-containing materials regularly in order to determine damage or wear;
– Step 2: When you have asbestos-containing materials that have been slightly damaged, you should greatly limit access to the area where the material is;
– Step 3: Try not to handle asbestos containing material. If you are dealing with possible asbestos on your floor you should not sand, or otherwise try to level asbestos flooring or asbestos floor’s backings. In fact, do not sweep, dust or vacuum any debris that could contain asbestos; and
– Step 4: Contact asbestos accredited and licensed professionals to further evaluate the situation for possible repairs and/or removals.
Curing Asbestos Problems
The discovery of asbestos-containing materials in your home requires action to be taken by accredited and trained asbestos professionals. These professionals can either remove the asbestos or repair the asbestos material so that it is no longer harmful. Complete removal of the asbestos-containing material will be required when remodeling and performing other alterations to your home could potentially disturb the asbestos-containing material. This process is complex, and if not handled by trained and accredited professionals you could potentially increase your household’s exposure to asbestos fibers. The asbestos repair process can occur if the asbestos-containing material is damaged or is at risk of being disturbed. Repair involves the complete covering, or sealing in of asbestos-containing material. With repair, the asbestos material stays in the home; however, if properly repaired it should not be harmful to your household.
If you are concerned that you are not the one to blame for the asbestos containing materials found in your home, then you should contact an asbestos exposure attorney today.