Electrical Asbestos: Recognizing Asbestos in Vintage Wiring

Visit us anytime at https://www.asbestosclaims.law/. Asbestos Artifacts - Asbestos-insulated wire

If you have ever worked on the electrical system of an older home, or any older electrical components, you may have seen cloth wiring. And if you do, you probably want to take precautions with some protective equipment in case that cloth contains asbestos.

Today’s Asbestos Artifacts segment with Asbestos Attorney Justinian C. Lane and http://www.AsbestosClaim.law is about the asbestos-insulated electrical wire.

Like most electrical insulation, asbestos insulation:
◦ Protects against electrical discharge
◦ Withstands the heat generated by electrical flow. This protects the conductor’s surrounding materials from being damaged or catching fire.
But in addition, asbestos is more durable than other fabric insulation like cotton.

So asbestos insulation was appealing to electricians because it also
◦ Protects the wiring from chemicals and moisture
◦ Helps prevent corona discharge. Corona discharge is kind of a mini version of lighting, where conducted electricity charges the atmosphere around it. Asbestos keeps the charge from leaking,.

Crocidolite
There are a few different kinds of asbestos that were used in industry One of them - crocidolite - was also known as ‘blue asbestos’.

Crocidolite is particularly resistant to electricity and is highly heat resistant.

Crocidolite is also a fibrous form of asbestos - so it can be woven into cloth wiring.

But asbestos is also a carcinogen, meaning it causes cancer. All types of asbestos cause cancer, but crocidolite is actually the worst of them all, and causes a great deal of mesothelioma, a particularly aggressive type of cancer almost exclusively connected to asbestos exposure.

Lung cancer and mesothelioma are two of the most common types of cancer caused by asbestos exposure.

The dangers are caused by the fibrous nature of asbestos.

Remember, asbestos is the only rock we know of on earth that can be woven into a fabric. In Roman times, asbestos was called rock wool, and some people thought it was a plant that grew in the rocks because it didn’t behave like most rocks.

That’s because asbestos is composed of tiny fibers - many are microscopic and invisible to the naked eye.

These little asbestos fibers can easily flake off and become airborne. Then they are easily inhaled or swallowed by humans.

And asbestos has no taste or smell or immediate reaction to our body, so you may not know you’re breathing or swallowing the fibers.

That’s why so many of the people with asbestos illness, by some counts 1 in 5 cases, were someone who never worked around asbestos, but washed the dirty work clothes or lived with a family member who did.

Because asbestos fibers are like tiny hairs that stick to everything.

And you can weave them into amazing fabric, that you can wrap around metal wire blazing with electricity, and it doesn’t burn or melt, it won’t corrode in acid. And it makes sense that the asbestos companies wanted to use it as an insulation material. It worked well.

The problem was the asbestos companies also knew that anyone inhaling those fibers was probably going to end up with breathing diseases decades later, including cancer.

They even often buried their own studies. 

The damage develops very slowly, over time, and people sometimes only discover symptoms of their asbestos-related illnesses up to forty or fifty years after they’re exposed.

In the 1980s and 90s, the asbestos industry cover-up was revealed, and companies were required to test employees for asbestos damage.
But asbestos damage has a latency, meaning asbestos-related illnesses take a long time to show symptoms.

So many of my clients who were industrial workers tested negative in the 1980s or 1990s but started showing symptoms a few decades later in the 2010s and 2020s.

Anyone who has worked with or near the electrical wiring or components in a building built before 1990 may have been exposed to asbestos.

The people most affect include electricians and folks working in construction on an older home or building.

But in addition, if you’re planning on remodeling a home built before 1990, anyone working or spending time near the work should take caution with proper protective equipment.

That’s especially true if you’re updating your lighting fixtures or older existing wiring insulation, and plan on opening or moving drywall, plaster, or older ceiling tiles.

And remember to keep an eye out for fuzzy or furry, often white fibers amid the braided insulation around the electrical wiring.