Vermiculite Vs Asbestos, Asbestos Vermiculite

Vermiculite is not asbestos there are no real causes for concern about health risks from vermiculite.

Sandshrew coloring page. Vermiculite was a common attic insulation product sold from the late 1920s to the early 1990s. Vermiculite mostly found in attics. Ive known that vermiculite insulation can contain asbestos and my advice to homeowners has always been to assume it contains asbestos and leave it alone which is also the advice of the epaif the insulation needs to be removed or disturbed my advice has previously been to recommend first having it tested for asbestos.

There was also a deposit of asbestos at that mine so the vermiculite from libby was contaminated with asbestos. Concerns about vermiculite contaminated with asbestos fibers prompted people to wonder whether if that wasnt also the case with perlite another expanded rock used to lighten gardening soils. Much of it installed between 1923 and 1990 could be contaminated with asbestos.

The pieces can be a mix of gray light brown dark brown silver or gold. Unfortunately almost all vermiculite insulation contains asbestos and is unsafe when disturbed. It could be purchased locally and could be installed by contractor or homeowner.

Vermiculite is a loose fill insulation that looks like a mixture of small grade gravel nuggets but is soft when squeezed just like popcorn. Vermiculite insulation is way worse than i previously thought. Vermiculite insulation product from the libby mine in montana is known to contain high levels of amphibolic asbestos.

Asbestos was found in all of the nearly two dozen samples from libby but little or none was found in the vermiculite from the other four sites. If you find vermiculite you will need to move on to the next step of determining whether or not it contains amphibole asbestos. But perlite essentially a form of volcanic glass is not formed in the same way as vermiculite and is never found in the company of asbestos.

It was mined there for more than 50 years ending in 1990. 1 vermiculite the mineral vermiculite is a naturally occurring sheet silicate mineral usually formed by the. During the 1920s and 1930s when asbestos awareness was practically nonexistent the libby mine in montana canada produced zonolite attic insulation and possibly other brands which may have contained amphibole asbestos to supply the majority of the world market in vermiculite based insulation.

Concerns about asbestos contaminated vermiculite insulation a mine near libby montana was the source of over 70 percent of all vermiculite sold in the united states from 1919 to 1990.