It seems that products from Asia containing asbestos are creeping into our supermarkets. These posts are from the UKOH listserver. The UKOH list is provided by British Occupational Hygiene Society. You can join BOHS by visiting http://www.bohs.org where there is an online application form and details of membership benefits.
- 4 weeks ago I purchased a gas BBQ from one of the UK’s leading supermarkets. It was a self assembly unit and like every British male I didn’t get round to building it until the sun had gone and the rain came. Upon inspection of my contents I noticed two heat proof washers that were to be used to fix areas where significant heat would be. As my job in the past has allowed me to see enough gaskets to sink a battleship I quickly put my asbestos hat on and tried to have a closer look as they looked suspect. I finally managed to bring them into work to make up a slide to have a look underneath the microscope. The result confirmed my suspicions. Yes ASBESTOS gaskets in a BBQ bought in 2008. Jolly good show. I did mention this to a few people at the BOHS conference but I had not done the analysis so here is confirmation. I have contacted the suppliers of the BBQ and informed them of the issue, the technical manager went mad he couldn’t believe it but i assured him that it definitely was asbestos and also made him aware that it has been illegal to do what they did for nearly 10 years eg importing asbestos, distributing and selling in the UK. He has acted quickly and informed the said supermarket to remove existing units from the shelves. He has contacted the manufacturers in China or Vietnam (where the problem lies) to replace the asbestos gaskets with non asbestos replacements.
- During an asbestos survey we recently found a brand new sink from China that had an asbestos containing acoustic pad fixed underneath.
- Their largest competitor had a similar problem in Glasgow last year!
- Chinese Chrysotile is often well loaded with Brucite and, more importantly, fibrous tremolite. I have picked both under the stereomicroscope and identified by plm from allegedly non-asbestos gaskets. The above two contaminants are present both as well dispersed tiny fibres and small clumps with a different “feel” to the chrysotile.
