Can the asbestos in the hessian part of carpet come through without disturbing it?

Chlo_dog asked:


Our house is an old house and we have recently discovered asbestos in several places around our home. And we got rid of most of it and soon discovered that our carpet has recycled hessian that was used to transport asbestos. Can that asbestos come through the hessian? Am i safe?

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One Response to “Can the asbestos in the hessian part of carpet come through without disturbing it?”

1. Ann-Marie Says:
   January 24th, 2010 at 8:14 pm

   According to a director of Environmental Health, It is believed that only one in 25-30 bags used to transport asbestos were recycled. (others were wool and wheat) And of those which were recycled – It is most likely that most of the asbestos fibers would have been removed from the bags during the cleaning and processing stage.

   It would be difficult for the asbestos fibers to seep through your carpet. If there are no big holes in your carpet where the hessian is exposed then your risk is very minimal.

   However – if you were proposing to rip the carpet up – and the carpet underlay does contain asbestos fibers then the fibers would become airborne and you coul inhale them.

   If you decide to have the carpet removed in the future – it would be wise to cut out a small sample of the underlay to test for asbestos. You can send this to a NATA accredited laboratory.

   Hope this helps to sum things up.

   Kind regards,

   Ann.