Asbestos Containment

How do I contain asbestos while I'm removing it?

Keep in mind at all times that the danger from asbestos is in airborne dust. The best way to keep dust down is to keep it wet. How much dust you're likely to raise depends on the asbestos-containing products you're dealing with, how friable it is, and how much you're disturbing it. Power tools always raise more dust than hand tools, but there are times when power tools cannot be avoided, such as when you're dealing with naturally occurring asbestos in rock, or must demolish similarly hard materials such as cement. In these cases, you may need to reach all the way to a system, like those used for specialized firefighting, that puts out a constant spray of water to match the dust released by the construction or demolition work. The professionals who operate these systems can quite finely control the spray so that it steadily captures the microscopic fibers from the air and brings them to the floor where they can be cleaned up.

It is important in general demolition to isolate materials that even could be ACM from other debris. Even if the ACM is nonfriable (such as in floor tiles) once it mixes with other debris it all has to be treated as dangerous. And ordinary demolition methods, such as chipping up vinyl flooring, can create friable asbestos.

Any work area where friable asbestos-containing material is being disturbed should be isolated from the rest of the house. The first concern is to shut down ventilation systems - sealing them, not just closing vents - and lining windows and doors with plastic sheeting and duct tape. You need at least three people to accomplish any significant job of asbestos abatement. Two people should stay inside the contained area to do the work, and one just at the entrance to supply additional water or tools as the work proceeds, so that the workers don't have to go out until the job is done. If they do, they can track asbestos dust out with them, and that would defeat the whole purpose of your work for isolation. All of the walls, ceiling, and floor areas that are not subject to asbestos removal should also be covered with plastic sheeting. You can extend this protection into an adjacent hallway or into a box framed roughly out into an adjacent room, to create a transitional "airlock" where the "gofer" can hand in tools and materials to the workers. This is also where the workers can remove their protective gear at the end of the day, have an initial wash to remove any dust that did get around the edges of their gear, and seal their gear and washrags into asbestos-disposal bags.

Everything that may have been potentially was exposed to asbestos-containing material goes into these bags still wet, or into other labeled, leak-tight containers to be carried to a landfill that has an area for disposal of ACM. Workers trained in handling this hazardous waste are licensed by the state to handle asbestos safely, and know how much asbestos waste you're bringing them. The bags are made of thick plastic, carefully sealed, and then sealed inside other bags. Pieces too large to put in bags without cutting them up (and raising more dust) can be wrapped in two layers of thick plastic sheeting, each layer secured with tape. Even the truck beds or other containers used to carry these packages and bags to the landfill must themselves be lined with two layers of heavy sheeting. All containers and vehicles are labeled to read "Danger - Contains Asbestos Fibers; Avoid Creating Dust; Cancer and Lung Disease Hazard"; to specify the Class 9 hazard rating that authorities along the way will need to know should there be any kind of accident. This also records the name of the property owner and location where the waste was generated.

How do I keep asbestos contained?

Do whatever it takes to avoid raising dust from asbestos-containing material and to keep the dust where you can collect it even if you are unable to see it. The obvious way to keep it out of the air is to get the asbestos-containing materials wet and keep it that way. It can start with a hand-held spray bottle, but it goes all the way to industrial misters that maintain dampness in the air. Wet asbestos fibers fall to the floor. Dry asbestos fibers can hang in the air for days or weeks, an invisible threat remaining long after visible dust has settled.

The second method is to mechanically contain any dust that might be raised. For a room-sized operation, such as for sprayed- or troweled-on materials on ceilings and walls, this means sealing the room in plastic. For smaller jobs, it might look a little more high-tech, using "glove bags" that zip over a segment of insulated pipe or ductwork with attached gloves that reach into the bag to remove the asbestos and drop it into the hanging bottom of the bag. Everything used to contain asbestos, though, becomes toxic waste and must eventually go into asbestos-disposal bags, headed for the landfill with the asbestos-containing material that was removed.

How do I dispose of asbestos-containing materials?

Waste that contains or is contaminated with asbestos (including the gear used to protect workers and to clean up the worksite, and other building materials such as underlayment that supported the asbestos-containing materials) is generally buried. It can't be buried just anywhere, though, because of the risk of its being inadvertently disturbed later and the fibers released into the air. Each state licenses landfills to receive asbestos waste and bury it according to federal and state requirements.

Different landfills may be licensed to handle different amounts of asbestos waste, and the smaller ones will take only waste that was generated in a specific geographic area. You or your abatement contractor will need to make arrangements in advance with the proper landfill - notice requirements range from 24 hours to weeks - so that they can have a trench of the proper size and configuration ready to receive your waste. Trained and experienced workers are on-hand to transfer the waste safely into the trench, and they have the right quantity of clean fill ready to use to immediately bury the asbestos waste. You will also be responsible (alone or through your abatement contractor) for having the asbestos-containing materials safely packaged for burial, usually in double layers of thick plastic or leak-proof, airtight containers. If the waste comes without warning, in the wrong quantity, or improperly contained, it can be refused by the landfill and you can be reported to state authorities and held liable for fixing the packaging at the site of the landfill.

How do removed asbestos-containing materials have to be packaged?

The key, as always, is to prevent the dispersal of dust. The main way to accomplish that is by double wrapping or bagging in thick plastic, sealed with plastic tape. The most common form of this packaging is a bag within a bag, each one twisted tightly, the "gooseneck" bent over and the ends sealed to the side with tape. Materials that don't fit in bags can be double-wrapped in sheets of the same plastic and sealed with the same tape. Federal regulations also allow for putting bulk material in a larger container double-lined with even thicker plastic and sealed with tape.

All of these packages must be labeled with specific information that they contain asbestos, that releasing and breathing the dust activates the hazard, and identifying the origin of the material. They travel to a landfill in a closed container or truck that is itself double-lined with thick, tape-sealed plastic and clearly labeled as containing hazardous materials. The day the waste is generated, they head straight to a specialized and ready-and-waiting landfill, where the packages are immediately covered with soil.

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