If you own a home, the absolute last thing that you want to do is to find asbestos in it. While asbestos is not going to be quite as popular as mold is, it is a very common residential toxin that has the potential to cause you some very serious health problems. Here is everything that you need to know about asbestos and how to successfully remove it from your home.
What Exactly is Asbestos?
Asbestos is going to be a naturally occurring mineral that was originally mined out of the ground in just about every single part of the world. It is composed of very thin, dense fibers that worked well in construction materials as it was very resistant to fire, heat, and electricity. That, of course, was from the 1920’s to the end of the 1980’s, when it was discovered that asbestos was actually not a very safe material at all, and that it did have the potential to cause a wide array of serious health conditions if inhaled. What that means, is if you are living in a house that was built in that time frame, there is a good chance that you have asbestos somewhere in your home and may need residential asbestos removal.
Why is it so Dangerous?
Asbestos is dangerous because when it is disturbed, you will have these microscopic fibers that will be released into the air. When this happens, these fibers are going to be very easy to inhale. This is going to be very bad for you, as even a minimal amount of exposure to asbestos is able to cause you some very serious problems, some of which include wheezing, difficulty breathing, coughing, growth in the lungs and throat, mesothelioma, and even lung cancer.
While your chances of having some type of asbestos related ailment is going to depend upon several different factors (for example: how long you are exposed to the asbestos, the amount of asbestos in the air, the chemical makeup of the fibers, etc.), some of the other factors involved will include whether or not you are a smoker and if you already have some type of pre-existing lung condition.
While most of the countries have banned the use of asbestos, the U.S. is one of the very few that have not. In fact, there are actually hundreds of different products that you interact with on a daily basis that contain asbestos. The one thing that you have on your side, however, is that in the U.S., any particular product is only able to contain less than 1% of asbestos in that product.
What if There is Asbestos in Your Home?
If you are concerned that you may have asbestos in your home, the best thing that you can do is to contact a professional asbestos removal contractor to come and look everything over. If you do have asbestos in your home, they will be able to safely remove it from the premises and make sure that you and your family are safe.
