I know it's not anthrax, but what is it?

May 25, 2007 9:12 AM

What does asbestos look like?

I live in a 1940s era apartment building. The management company recently posted a notice that there would be asbestos abatement in our shared basement.

A separate issue in my own apartment: The plaster on our bathroom ceiling and in a few other places around our apartment has begun to fall apart. While I've been trying to get maintenance around to fix it, I'm curious as to what the white powdery substance that keeps landing everywhere might be.

Not freaking out over here; just curious as to whether any asbestos problems in the basement might be building-wide.

posted by brina to home & garden (9 comments total)

Asbestos can take a lot of forms, it was usually mixed with some other material, cement, plaster, ceiling tiles or as a fiber.

Generally in a building situation it will just be mixed as dust.
posted by bitdamaged at 9:18 AM on May 25, 2007

The white powdery substance you are seeing is most likely just plaster thats broken down.
posted by bitdamaged at 9:19 AM on May 25, 2007

The asbestos in the basement is probably from boiler pipe insulation -- the ceiling dust you're getting is just degraded plaster.

Unless you have pipes running through your space, jacketed in a sort of coarse-quilty white stuff, you're fine.
posted by aramaic at 9:29 AM on May 25, 2007 [2 favorites]

Asbestos itself is tiny fibers, only a few microns long - you can't see it with the naked eye. In older buildings some materials more likely to contain asbestos are: floor tiles, tile mastic, "cottage cheese" ceiling spray, roofing tar, pipe coverings, boiler coatings and insulation, wall-board joint compound, and Transite panels.
posted by RichardP at 9:35 AM on May 25, 2007

To add to bitdamaged, when moisture seeps through plaster over the years it disolves a bit of the material. The gypsum and salts re crystalize on the surface when the water dries.
posted by Pollomacho at 9:37 AM on May 25, 2007

Thanks, everyone. All your answers have been very helpful.
posted by brina at 9:56 AM on May 25, 2007

Um, asbestos fibers aren't necessarily invisibly small. It can be found (wild) in bundles of fibers that are several inches long, with individual fibers ranging from a few microns--nearly a mm in diameter.

I agree that it probably isn't in your ceiling, and the stuff in your building's basement has most likely been processed into felt insultation.
posted by janell at 11:42 AM on May 25, 2007

You're right janell, I really should have started of my sentence with "Dangerous asbsetos" instead of "Asbestos." I didn't meant to imply that all asbestos fibers are tiny, just that the the danger of tiny asbestos fibers is why asbestos remediation is done.
posted by RichardP at 1:56 PM on May 25, 2007

If you do want some peace of mind, you can probably get the white powder tested.

I don't know where you live, but a couple of years ago I had two samples (of artex) tested in a local environmental health lab for £25/each. I went through a UK-based Asbestos helpline for further information, who put me on to the local lab. If you're in the US (I'm working purely on probabilities here, no offense intended :-) ) you might want to try the EPA.

But overall, I agree with Bitdamaged and Pollomacho, especially as it's happening in the bathroom (presumably more humid than other rooms).
posted by Nice Guy Mike at 2:23 PM on May 25, 2007