It has been estimated that asbestos fibres have been used in over 3000 products, ranging from insulation lagging to brake linings. Below is a selection of applications that may contain asbestos fibres.

Please do not worry unduly about exposure to these items. Since asbestos product manufacture has been banned, it is important to remember that modern versions of the items below will NOT contain asbestos.

Adhesives and thermal taping compounds
Cement products (pipes, roofing, walls, siding, sheets)
Chalkboards
Construction Mastics (floor, tile, carpet, ceiling tile, etc.)
Cooling towers
Electrical equipment (ducts, panel partitions, cloth, insulations)
Fire doors, curtains, blankets and other fireproofing materials
High temperature gaskets
Household heat resistant items (ironing board covers, oven gloves, etc)
Insulation (spray-applied, blown-in; electrical wiring, boiler, breaching, pipe, HVAC duct, etc insulations)
Laboratory equipment (hoods, table tops, gloves, etc)
Lift equipment (panels, brake shoes)
Packing materials
Plaster (acoustical, decorative)
Roofing material (shingles, felt, cement)
Textured paints / coatings
Tiles (floor, ceiling, panels, sheet flooring, flooring backing)
Thermal paper products
Vehicular break pads

It is important to remember that even if your property contains asbestos containing materials, their mere presence is NOT hazardous. The danger occurs if they become damaged and release their potentially harmful (ie. blue or brown asbestos) fibres. The best course of action is often to leave asbestos materials that are in good order untouched; indeed, the HSE are very clear on this point.

Should you have cause to think you are being exposed to asbestos fibres, however, Asbestos Watchdog UK (http://www.asbestoswatchdog.co.uk) will allay any concerns and give you all the advice you need to manage the asbestos containing materials in question.

Asbestos Watchdog's UK research consultants, under Professor F. Pooley, have produced a series of research papers that seem to prove that white asbestos in cement (and probably plaster) undergoes a chemical and structural alteration that makes the fibre significantly different to the white asbestos formula defined in the Governments implementation of the EU asbestos regulations. This being the case then 90% of all asbestos materials should be excluded from the HSE's asbestos regulations and the EA's Hazardous Waste Directives.

So important are the implications of these findings that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) instructed the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) to duplicate Professor Pooley's investigation. However, rather than use the standard scientific approach of repeating Professor Pooley's work, for reasons best known to themselves, the HSL composed tests of their own. Their experiments were apparently designed to refute the findings and their scientific worth is questionable. The results, which we believe had no external peer review, are published on their web site. The findings are dubious to say the least but the reason for them is perhaps understandable when you consider the costs to the HSE & the EA of redrafting their regulations and the political unacceptability of admitting error.

Read the "Casitile" Report here : http://www.asbestoswatchdog.co.uk/Science/casitile_intro.html