Asbestos

Asbestos – the miracle fibre

Asbestos, which was already known in prehistoric times (1800 BC), is a material which never burns, rots nor corrodes. It insulates from cold and noise, it possesses both high elasticity and tensile strength.

In short, asbestos materials are virtually indestructible.

Because of its' excellent characteristics, the mineral asbestos has been used in countless ways in technologies of every kind.

As a rule, a distinction is drawn between weakly bound asbestos products such as

	asbestos sprayed materials,
	asbestos insulating board,
	asbestos fabric,

and strongly bound asbestos products such as

	asbestos-cement sheets,
	corrugated asbestos-cement sheets,
	asbestos-cement pressure pipes.

Asbestos – dream or nightmare?

Today, asbestos is no longer the highly valued material it used to be. Instead, it has become a highly sensitive subject. It is now indisputable that tiny fibres can cause incurable diseases of the respiratory organs.

Enormous efforts and expenses will be required over decades before this serious danger to humans and the environment has been entirely eliminated.

Safety engineering measures

When handling or working with materials containing asbestos, the process has to be designed in such a way that no asbestos fibres are released into the air, or that this is reduced to the lowest possible level with existing technology.

If asbestos fibres are nevertheless unintentionally released, they have to be at once totally gathered at source and then disposed of without risk to humans or the environment.