All types of asbestos fibres are known to cause serious health hazards in humans and animals. Amosite and crocidolite are considered the most hazardous asbestos fibre types; however, chrysotile asbestos has also produced tumours in animals and is a recognised cause of asbestosis and malignant mesothelioma in humans, and mesothelioma has been observed in people who were occupationally exposed to chrysotile, family members of the occupationally exposed, and residents who lived close to asbestos factories and mines.

During the 1980s and again in the 1990s, it was suggested at times that the process of making asbestos cement could “neutralise” the asbestos, either via chemical processes or by causing cement to attach to the fibers and changing their physical size; subsequent studies showed that this was untrue, and that decades-old asbestos cement, when broken, releases asbestos fibres identical to those found in nature, with no detectable alteration.

WHT Group can carry out safe and efficient asbestos surveys.