Where can you find asbestos?

Work with any type of asbestos involved is dangerous and a majority of the time it is not always obvious where the asbestos actually is as most is located hidden away from any form of inspection.
The most common places like these are asbestos cement products, floor tiles, insulating board and surprisingly sprayed coatings on things such as ceilings, walls and beams. asbestos can be found inside and outside of a building and is extremely dangerous to people's health if not dealt with straightaway.
The amount of damage that asbestos has on a human body depends mostly on the time scale that the person has been exposed to the fibers and also the total number of fibers that have been breathed in.
After a large amount of fibers are breathed in by a human being, asbestos gets to work at damaging vital organs and consequently leads to many human body diseases such as mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis. These kind of diseases result in around 4000 deaths a year.
Of course it is important to consider that these diseases are caused by a long term exposure to asbestos so it is extremely wise to take precautions such as asbestos surveys and asbestos management of your workplace in order to prevent any contracting of an asbestos related disease in the future.
Lagging and insulation is one of the most dangerous materials to contain asbestos for a human being. Although this type may have many different appearances and colours, which make it more difficult to identify, a majority is a fibrous material which flakes easily due to its powder like consistency.
This material is mainly found on heating systems such as pipework or boilers and due to the disturbance of the substance found around these types of materials it means that the dangerous fibers are very easily released into the air that we breathe.
However even more dangerous than asbestos contained in lagging and insulation is loose fill asbestos which is usually found behind cavity walls, loft spaces and commonly under floor boards. Pure asbestos is made to create this material resulting in a huge amount of dangerous fibers in the air if disturbed and therefore breathed in.
If this could be a risk in your own home or workplace the best thing to do is to get it checked it as soon as possible and do not attempt to work on this material unless you are a HSE-licensed contractor.
Although the danger is high with exposure to asbestos, there are some factors which could effect the level of risk to disease a person is. These are factors such as smoking.

Asbestos Assessment Surveys

Do you believe that you are need of an asbestos survey? Are you aware of the requirements of the Health and Safety Executive guidance document MDHS 100? Do you know which type of asbestos survey you require? When people hear the word asbestos they immediately think of a dangerous hazard, of cancer or of death. The majority of us are fully aware of the dangers of asbestos however how many of us are aware of the regulations involved?
This is where the advice and support of a specialist asbestos survey company can be invaluable. They will, of course, be fully aware of each of the regulations and are likely to offer an extensive range of asbestos surveys to tailor for each specific need as well as offering asbestos safety awareness courses for the tradesmen that require such a certificate by law.
When it comes to a specific type of asbestos survey they can normally be spilt into three different groups;
You have the "type one asbestos survey". This is a where the surveyor will try to find or locate any of what they call "asbestos containing materials" or ACMs.
The type two report is the same as the type one report but it goes into much more detail, taking away samples which will then be tested for asbestos etc.
The type three report is the more comprehensive of all of these reports as it attempts to locate all of the asbestos containing materials within a building however hard they may be to reach - many a wall has been known to have been knocked down for these types of report.
As you may be starting to realise it is quite complex and this is why I would recommend you seek the advice of an asbestos specialist.