How safe are Asbestos barrel change gloves???

[CINDERS]

1 O M there is also the fact of the contaminated clothing you wore coming home with fibres that expose family members to it as well the dam stuff is just plain nasty in the power station I was in the older 60's section of it was riddled with the stuff in the form of gaskets we had a transportable decon unit for people to go to if they were exposed to it no chances taken or refusals into the trailer you go to get deconned.

[Aragorn243]

There is friable asbestos and non-friable asbestos. Friable is the stuff found as insulation around pipes, etc, non-friable is the hard stuff usually used as tiles and siding. non-friable is not considered a hazardous material and can be treated as normal trash. Friable is to be double bagged and labeled but still goes to the same landfill as far as I know. Left undisturbed, not really hazardous in either state but mess with it and create dust and you have a problem. Lot of buildings still have pipes insulated with it. I would dispute one particle being a cause for cancer, as with every other cancer causing substance, it tends to be the amount you are exposed too. If one particle did you in, most of us would be dead just from going to elementary school. I have no desire to mess with it in any case. It is on the exterior of my house under the vinyl siding and that I'm not too concerned with.

[jamie5070]

I was taught when I was OSHA certified that the big problem with asbestos, when compared to most other carcenogens, was that there was not a clear exposure limit. Lower exposure could be as hazardous as very high
exposure.

[martins8589]

Carrying and using the GPMG M60 also included the No2 carrying the "Golf Bag" with the asbestos glove and spare barrel. Thousands of soldiers in the Australian army would have used it.
When I was a kid we used to smash up the asbestos wall sheeting to throw as frizbees. Guess it is luck. Helped my Dad with asbestos repairs as well.

[HENRY B]

used to have rock battles with the neighbor kids when i was small. ran out of rocks. picked up a piece of house siding, and threw it like a frizbee . it hit its mark. cut the neighbor kid across his face. i ran inside and hid under the bed. he caught me walking home from school and beat the **** out of me.so see asbestos is danger est to your health .

[Sentryduty]

That reminds me, back in the 1980's my Grandfather bought a vehicle shop building from CFB Cornwallis and had it floated to his nearby property.

He warned us kids about the asbestos side shingle but we broke them off and threw them at each other anyway.

I did read an article in a respectable magazine some years ago that published on the topic. It examined a (then failed) Canadian asbestos mine, workers and the nearby population. It concluded that aside from extreme exposure cases, Asbestos had been excessively demonized by the OH&S industry.

Most folks treat Asbestos with greater fear than radioactivity these days.

[Flying10uk]

Most folks treat Asbestos with greater fear than radioactivity these days.

That was quite an amusing one liner, Darren, made me laugh.

Where Asbestos was used in the building trade for such items as roof sheeting and other solid items like pipes, it was my understanding that the Asbestos was held together with a type of cement and this was one of the safe forms? The main risks here, I understood to be when it was cut or disturbed?