Is your home an asbestos danger zone?
By Michelle Warren • Bankrate.com

If your house is more than 20 years old, chances are you're living with asbestos. It's a startling fact, considering most people think of asbestos lurking in commercial and industrials buildings -- but rarely do they envision the hazardous material hiding in the place they call home.

"I don't want to scare everybody, but it is something to think about," says John Lindsay, project manager for Reitzel Bros. Environmental, an abatement and remediation company in Breslau, Ont.

"It's mainly going to be in homes constructed prior to 1986," he says, adding that asbestos-containing vermiculite insulation was used right into the 1990s. The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that several million homes in the US have vermiculite insulation. Although there are no similar statistics for Canada, experts put the number at upward of several hundred thousand.

Where does asbestos hide?
Besides vermiculite insulation, there are many other household materials that might contain asbestos. The list is long -- insulation, piping, wires, paints, caulking, putty, cement, floor tiles, ceiling tiles, taping compounds, plaster, siding and wallboard are just a sampling.

The versatile mineral has been used in countless products for more than 4,500 years. Until the 1980s, it was widely used as an insulator and fire retardant. Studies in the 1960s turned up troubling links between asbestos and the health of those regularly exposed to the product. One of the most frightening aspects about exposure to asbestos is that the effects can come to light decades later. These revelations led to a dramatic decline in the use of asbestos since the 1980s.

"Asbestos was cheap and it had a lot of uses," says Lindsay, adding that if homeowners "have reason to believe they are dealing with a suspect asbestos material, they should have it tested."

Where the danger lies
Experts encourage homeowners to put things in perspective and remember that most people are exposed to a small amount of asbestos on a daily basis. The main school of thought is that asbestos only becomes a health hazard when it's disturbed.

It's not the presence of asbestos that's necessarily dangerous, but when products made with asbestos begin to break down and the fibres are released into the air the danger mounts. When inhaled, asbestos fibres stick to the lungs and eventually cause scarring that can lead to fatal lung ailments and cancers.

"If it's not disturbed, it's safe," says Moe Dala, president of GTA Removal Services in Mississauga, Ont. "They shouldn't panic, and they shouldn't remove it themselves."

In most cases, asbestos is encapsulated and sealed into a product to reduce exposure. Dangerous fibres are released in the air when the seal is broken, either by being cut (which happens during renovations) or when wear and tear or aging cause the asbestos-containing product to break down.

Simple renovation projects, such as sanding plaster, disturbing insulation, removing old shingles and siding, snapping old ceiling tiles, sanding or scrapping vinyl flooring, replacing a water tank or drilling, sanding or scrapping old building compounds -- can put people at risk.

"If you're doing any kind of project, you should inspect the area first for asbestos," says Dala.