Asbestos UK | Asbestos Management | Asbestos Removal
Asbestos UK
Asbestos is the common name for a variety of naturally occurring, crystalline, fibrous, silicate minerals. There are two main types of asbestos, amphibole and serpentine groups that are fibrous in structure and resistant to acid and fire.
Chrysotile asbestos (White), a form of serpentine, is the chief commercial asbestos. Varieties of amphibole asbestos are Amosite (Brown), used in insulating materials; Crocidolite (Blue), commonly used in tank/pipe lagging or sprayed applications; and Tremolite, used in laboratories for filtering chemicals.
Canada and Russia are the main Chrysotile asbestos producing countries; South Africa has been the main producer of Crocidolite as well as producing Amosite. Asbestos is mined both in open quarries and underground.
From the 1930’s to the 1990’s asbestos was widely imported into Western Europe.
However, several serious health risks have been directly linked to the presence of asbestos in UK buildings and for this reason government legislation has been passed in order to ensure that all asbestos containing materials are identified and monitored in all non-residential properties and places of work and this information must kept in an asbestos register as a legal obligation which is imposed on the person who is responsible for the maintenance and daily running of the building in question.
Inhalation of airborne asbestos fibres has been established as the cause of asbestosis (thickening and scarring of lung tissue) and as a cause of mesothelioma (a highly lethal tumour of the pleura) as well as of cancer of the lung.