Asbestos in brownstone? (apartment, renting, contractors)
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I'm renting an apartment inside an upper west side brownstone and I noticed some of the plaster came off my wall, exposing a dusty gray substance. I'm concerned it is asbestos but don't know if asbestos exists in brownstones. I asked my landlord who didn't know. Has anyone experienced this or can recommend a good asbestos test kit?
Yes it’s best to call for an inspection. Asbestos is more dangerous than what people think. You don’t want to live with that. If you call your landlord they may want to hide the problem to avoid fines and costly repairs.
I don't know if there's asbestos in plaster, but even is there is, I'm quite sure the recommended course of action would be to fix the damage/cover it rather than remove and replace the plaster in your walls (which of course is an enormous job).
There are asbestos tiles in a relatives basement and the advice was to paint over them or cover with a rug rather than disturbing them, because that only creates a bigger problem.
I think the danger of asbestos is real.
It kills 12-15,000 people every year.
Aspirin over dose kills 3,000 people every year.
Tobacco kills 480,000 every year.
Second hand smoke kills 41,000 every year.
I have seen professionals soak this stuff down with
water before covering it , painting it or sealing it.
My occupational exposure to asbestos is close to 40 years.
It didn't kill me because I did not ingest it,smoke it or inhale it.
I simply did not disturb it.
Asbestos is in pretty much every building built between the early 1920s and the 1970s. It is made from a mined mineral. It is only a problem if it is disturbed and allowed to fly around in the air, where it breaks down into ever smaller fibers (friable is the word for this) and if you inhale them, they can lodge in your lung and eventually cause a tumour so rock hard it will break a surgical saw.
I had to take a class on this when doing asbestos-removal contract administration in the 80s and 90s.
Usually in buildings, it is not in the plaster but in tiles and used for insulation, especially around pipes.
My grandfather was a plumber from the 1930s to the 1960s. He died in 1972 from an inoperable lung tumor. When I took that class, I realized that's probably what killed him.
Asbestos is in pretty much every building built between the early 1920s and the 1970s. It is made from a mined mineral. It is only a problem if it is disturbed and allowed to fly around in the air, where it breaks down into ever smaller fibers (friable is the word for this) and if you inhale them, they can lodge in your lung and eventually cause a tumour so rock hard it will break a surgical saw.
I had to take a class on this when doing asbestos-removal contract administration in the 80s and 90s.
Usually in buildings, it is not in the plaster but in tiles and used for insulation, especially around pipes.
My grandfather was a plumber from the 1930s to the 1960s. He died in 1972 from an inoperable lung tumor. When I took that class, I realized that's probably what killed him.
So much demo going on around the city, you have to wonder what's floating around in the air at any given time. Another reason to mask up even when you're outside. I remember being told the air was safe at the World Trade Center site after 9/11...
I'm skeptical though that the city is going to check the composition of someone's plaster. If they do, it would probably be DEP rather than DOB, unless the landlord is refusing to fix the damage.
So much demo going on around the city, you have to wonder what's floating around in the air at any given time. Another reason to mask up even when you're outside. I remember being told the air was safe at the World Trade Center site after 9/11...
I'm skeptical though that the city is going to check the composition of someone's plaster. If they do, it would probably be DEP rather than DOB, unless the landlord is refusing to fix the damage.
That was my former Governor and then-head of the EPA, Christie Whitman.
All you had to do was sniff to know it wasn't true, even if you were across the river. Most of the unions and contractors working in the WTC area had air-monitoring equipment and knew it wasn't true, either.
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