Many people believe that asbestos is only found in older industrial buildings like factories, but this is not true. Even though the dangers of asbestos have been known for decades, there can still be hidden asbestos in unexpected places throughout your home, including inside household beauty products and appliances.
Hidden Asbestos In Your Home
Under even the most ideal conditions, taking on a home renovation can be quite a challenge. You have to deal with strangers coming and going, the loud noise and the mess. But it becomes even more of an undertaking when you take into consideration the dangers associated with disturbing a poisonous substance into the environment where your family eats and sleeps.
Asbestos was used in hundreds of building products, including:
- Caulking around windows and doors
- Gaskets and seals on furnaces
- Asphalt
- Coal shoots
- Shingles and roofing materials
- Cement
- Ceiling tiles
- Soundproofing
- Coverings on stovetop heat elements
- Wood burning stoves
- Adhesive behind wallpaper
- Vinyl and rubber flooring
- Attic insulation
- Drywall and putty
- Toilet seats and cisterns
If you find this all very intimidating and instead decide to embrace your vinyl floor tiles and popcorn ceiling, it is important to know that even seemingly intact materials can still release hidden asbestos particles into the air.
For example, fake embers and ash in retro fireplaces frequently contain asbestos. When they are heated, the asbestos can be released into the living space.
Asbestos in Household Appliances
Other surprising hidden asbestos sources include household appliances like hairdryers and crock pots. And attached to these older appliances you may find a power cord coated with an asbestos sheath that was intended to prevent electrical fires.
Asbestos was once found to be used in more than 3,000 consumer products. It was inexpensive, locally mined, fire resistant and extremely durable.
Asbestos Beauty Products
Asbestos may also be hiding in your medicine cabinet. Beauty products such as baby powder containing talc were often made with tremolite asbestos. Talc is a mineral mined around the United States and is often contaminated with asbestos.
Many foreign manufacturers have less stringent environmental and health regulations on asbestos use and use contaminated talc in beauty products or household consumer products.
Asbestos and Safety Precautions
Asbestos fibers are extremely dangerous and it is very important to take proper safety precautions in order to ensure a healthy environment for you and your family.
If you have asbestos-based buildings products, household appliances or beauty products in your home, it’s important to remove them right away. You can minimize the health risks by hiring a professional company to remove it and dispose of it safely.
While it is tempting to save money and begin your home renovation without testing, even a single exposure to hidden asbestos could result in a severe and life-threatening disease such as mesothelioma.
