Common building materials and products that contained asbestos

3 Common building materials and products that contained asbestos 

A surprisingly wide range of materials and products containing asbestos has been used within the construction industry that contained asbestos. In 1976, the asbestos industry was advertising the fact that asbestos was used in over 3000 different products (London Hazards Centre 1995). It is estimated that currently 4.4 million buildings still contain asbestos in the UK, of which 2.2 million buildings are domestic properties (HSC 2002). Examples of common building materials and products that contained asbestos are detailed below  

Loose pure asbestos fibre that was ready to be mixed on site as required, or to be used as a packing material around cables or placed into bags for insulation purposes etc. 

Insulation materials such as sprayed coatings to concrete, reinforced steel joists etc. that were applied by spraying up to 85% asbestos mixed with a binder onto a sticky coating such as bitumen or adhesive glue. 

Hard set insulation coatings that were usually mixed on site and hand applied/moulded onto pipework, calorifiers and tanks etc. 

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