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 Mobile ViewENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS - INSPECT, TEST, REMEDY AIR CLEANER PURIFIER TYPES AIR FILTER EFFECTIVENESS AIR FILTERS, FIBERGLASS PARTICLES AIR FILTERS for HVAC SYSTEMS AIR FILTERS, OPTIMUM INDOOR AIR FILTERS, SOURCES FOR AIR FILTERING STRATEGIES AIR FILTERING CONTINUOUS FAN OPERATION AIR HANDLER / BLOWER UNITS AIR LEAK DETECTION TOOLS AIR POLLUTANTS, COMMON INDOOR Air Quality Improvement Strategies AIR LEAK SEALING PROCEDURE AIR SEALING STRATEGIES AIR TEST FOR MOLD: ACCURACY AIR TEST SAMPLING CASSETTE STUDY AIRBORNE MOLD SPORE COUNT ACCURACY ALLERGEN TESTS for buildings ALLERGY TESTS for PEOPLE ALLERGY TEST ACCURACY ANIMAL ALLERGENS / PET DANDER ANIMAL ENTRY POINTS in buildings ASBESTOS CLEANUP COMPANIES ASBESTOS ROOFING / SIDING DUST ASBESTOS FLOORING HAZARD REDUCTION ASBESTOS-FREE INSULATION MATERIALS ASBESTOS IDENTIFICATION IN buildings ASBESTOS AIR DUCTS Asbestos Air Duct Vibration Dampers ASBESTOS in CARPETING, PADDING ASBESTOS CEILING TILES, Asbestos-Containing ASBESTOS DUCTS, HVAC ASBESTOS DUCT INSULATION, Asbestos Paper ASBESTOS DUCTS, Transite Pipe ASBESTOS FIREPROOFING SPRAY-On Coatings ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE IDENTIFICATION ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE LAB PROCEDURES ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE PHOTO ID GUIDE Asbestos Foamed-Over ASBESTOS INSULATION ASBESTOS PAPER DUCT INSULATION ASBESTOS PIPE INSULATION ASBESTOS ROOFING, CEMENT & FIBER CEMENT ASBESTOS ROOFING / SIDING DUST ASBESTOS SIDING CEMENT & FIBER CEMENT ASBESTOS in UNUSUAL PLACES ASPHALT-ASBESTOS PAINT / SEALANT TRANSITE PIPE AIR DUCTS TRANSITE PIPE CHIMNEYS / FLUES TRANSITE PIPE WATER SUPPLY VERMICULITE INSULATION ASBESTOS FLOORING HAZARD REDUCTION ASBESTOS FLOORING REMOVAL GUIDE ASBESTOS LIST of PRODUCTS ASBESTOS MATERIAL REGULATIONS ASBESTOS MATERIAL REGULATIONS Update ASBESTOS MATERIAL REGULATIONS, OSHA ASBESTOS PHOTO GUIDE to Materials ASBESTOS REMOVAL, Amateur, Incomplete Asbestos Removal, Certification ASBESTOS REMOVAL GUIDE, FLOORING ASBESTOS REMOVAL, Wetting Guidelines ASBESTOS RISK ASSESSMENT ATTORNEYS and EXPERT WITNESSES BACKDRAFTING HEATING EQUIPMENT BIBLIOGAPHY for ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH, MOLD, IAQ BIOGAS PRODUCTION & USE BIOLOGICAL POLLUTANTS BLACK MOLD, HARMLESS COSMETIC BLACK MOLD, TOXIC & ALLERGENIC BLEACHING MOLD, Advice about BLOWER DOORS & AIR INFILTRATION BLUE vs YELLOW COMBUSTION FLAMES Bisphenol-A, BPA BLEACHING MOLD, Advice about BOOK MOLD, Moldy Book Cleaning BOOKSTORE - ENVIRONMENTAL BUILDING SAFETY HAZARDS GUIDE CAR MOLD CONTAMINATION CARBON MONOXIDE - CO Carbon Nanotube Materials CARPET MOLD CONTAMINATION CARPETS & PADDING ODORS IN buildings Cell phone Radiation Hazards CHIMNEY INSPECTION DIAGNOSIS REPAIR CHINESE DRYWALL HAZARDS CHLORINE IN DRINKING WATER CHLORINE in WATER, HOW TO TEST FOR CHLORINE IN SEPTIC WASTEWATER COMBUSTION GASES & PARTICLE HAZARDS Diethylstilbestrol - DES DUST ANALYSIS for FIBERGLASS DUST CONTAMINATION FROM HVAC? DUST SAMPLING PROCEDURE EMERGENCY RESPONSE, IAQ, GAS, MOLD EMF ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS & HUMAN EXPOSURE EMF Levels of Cancer Risk EMF MEASUREMENT PROCEDURES ENERGY SAVINGS in buildings ENVIRO-SCARE - PUBLIC FEAR CYCLES EXTERIORS of buildings FIBERGLASS HAZARDS FIBERGLASS INSULATION MOLD FIBERGLASS PARTICLE CONTAMINATION TEST Fireplaces & Woodstove Contaminants FLOOD DAMAGE ASSESSMENT, SAFETY & CLEANUP FLOOR TYPES & DEFECTS ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE IDENTIFICATION FORMALDEHYDE HAZARDS GAS EXPOSURE EFFECTS HEATING OIL EXPOSURE HAZARDS, LIMITS HUMIDITY CONTROL & TARGETS INDOORS INDOOR AIR QUALITY IMPROVEMENT GUIDE INSULATION INSPECTION & IMPROVEMENT INSULATION IDENTIFICATION GUIDE INSULATION, ASBESTOS INSULATION MOLD LEED Building Designation & IAQ LIGHTING, EXTERIOR GUIDE LIGHTING, INTERIOR GUIDE LIGHTNING PROTECTION UFFI UREA FORMALDEHYDE FOAM INSULATION LEAD POISONING HAZARDS GUIDE LEED Building Designation & IAQ LP & Natural Gas Safety Hazards Legionella Legionnaires' Disease METHANE GAS SOURCES MILDEW in buildings ? MOISTURE CONTROL in BUILDINGS MOLD: A COMPLETE GUIDE TO MOLD MOLD ACTION GUIDE - WHAT TO DO ABOUT MOLD MOLD APPEARANCE - WHAT MOLD LOOKS LIKE MOLD CLEANERS - WHAT TO USE MOLD CLEANUP GUIDE- HOW TO GET RID OF MOLD MOLD CONSULTANTS/INSPECTORS MOLD CULTURE TEST KIT VALIDITY MOLD DETECTION & INSPECTION GUIDE MOLD or INDOOR AIR EMERGENCY RESPONSE MOLD EXPERT, WHEN TO HIRE MOLD FAQ's MOLD ODORS, MUSTY SMELLS MOLD PREVENTION GUIDE MOLD RELATED ILLNESS GUIDE MOLD SAFETY WARNINGS MOLD SPRAYS, SEALANTS, PAINTS MOLD STANDARDS MOLD TEST KITS for DIY MOLD TESTS MOLD TESTING METHOD VALIDITY MVOCs & MOLDY MUSTY ODORS Museum Artifact Preservation Nanomaterials Hazards NOISE / SOUND DIAGNOSIS & CURE ODORS GASES SMELLS, DIAGNOSIS & CURE OIL, HEATING, EXPOSURE HAZARDS, LIMITS OIL TANKS INSPECT LEAK TEST ABANDON REGS OXYGEN - O2 OZONE HAZARDS OZONE for MOLD OR ODORS PAINTS & COATINGS ODORS IN buildings PARTICLE SIZES & IAQ Particulates & Allergens Indoors Pesticide Exposure Hazards PET ALLERGEN REMEDIES PLASTIC CONTAINERS, TANKS, TYPES PLASTIC HEATER VENT PLASTIC ODORS-SCREENS, SIDING PLUMBING SYSTEM ODORS PVC - VINYL BUILDING PRODUCTS RADON HAZARD TESTS & MITIGATION SAFETY HAZARDS GUIDE SEPTIC SYSTEM ODORS SEWER GAS ODORS SIDING VINYL SMELL PATCH TEST to Track Down Odors SOUND CONTROL in buildings SOLAR ENERGY SYSTEMS STAIN & BIODETERIORATION AGENT CATALOG STAINS on buildings - QUICK GUIDE STAIN DIAGNOSIS on BUILDING EXTERIORS STAIN DIAGNOSIS on BUILDING INTERIORS SEPTIC SYSTEM INSPECT DIAGNOSE REPAIR SULPHUR & SEWER GAS SMELL SOURCES THERMAL TRACKING Indicates Heat Loss Urea Formaldehyde Foam Insulation UFFI URETHANE FOAM Deterioration, Outgassing VAPOR BARRIERS & CONDENSATION in BUILDINGS VAPOR BARRIERS & HOUSEWRAP VAPOR CONDENSATION & BUILDING SHEATHING VENTILATION in BUILDINGS VINYL CHLORIDE HEALTH INFO VINYL Siding or PLASTIC Window ODORS in buildings Volatile Organic Compounds VOCs WATER ODORS, CAUSE CURE WATER TANK SAFETY WATER TESTS, CONTAMINANTS, TREATMENT WATER TEST CHOICES & WATER TEST FEES WATER TREATMENT EQUIPMENT CHOICES WIND ENERGY SYSTEMS WIND TURBINES & LIGHTNING World Trade Center Collapse Dust Photos More Information |
This article provides photos and procedural suggestions used in the forensic laboratory to identify asbestos materials (or probable-asbestos) in flooring and floor tiles. At our Q&A section we include information about finding a certified asbestos test laboratory for sample processing. InspectAPedia tolerates no conflicts of interest. We have no relationship with advertisers nor with topics or services discussed at this website.© Copyright 2012 InspectAPedia.com, All Rights Reserved. Information Accuracy & Bias Pledge is at below-left. Use page top links to major topics or use links at the left of each page to navigate within topics and documents at this website. Green links show where you are in a document series or at this website. How to Identify Asphalt-Asbestos or Vinyl-Asbestos Floor Tiles in the LaboratoryIn this article series we provide photographs and descriptive text of asbestos insulation and other asbestos-containing products to permit identification of definite, probable, or possible asbestos materials in buildings. Readers should also see FLOOR TILE HISTORY & INGREDIENTS for a discussion of the ingredients and production of asbestos-containing flooring. And see ASBESTOS FLOOR TILE IDENTIFICATION for advice on visual identification of vinyl-asbestos floor tiles or flooring products that probably do or don't contain asbestos. For a detailed photo guide to individual vinyl-asbestos floor tile patterns, sizes, and years of manufacture, see Photo Guide to Asbestos Flooring - Product Names, Sizes, Years. For a strategy for collecting building dust samples, when, where, how many samples to collect, see DUST SAMPLING PROCEDURE.
While an expert lab test using polarized light microscopy is necessary to reliably identify the presence and specific type of asbestos fiber, or to identify the presence of asbestos in air or dust samples, many asbestos-containing building products not only are obvious and easy to recognize, but since there were not other look-alike products that were not asbestos, a visual identification of this material can be virtually a certainty in many cases. On occasion, the original flooring packaging or installation literature may be available for a given home: often an extra box of floor tiles was kept for future repairs. The vinyl-asbestos floor tile package label information, combined with a simple comparison of tiles in the package with tiles installed in the building may be sound confirmation of asbestos-containing materials. See Vinyl Asbestos Floor Tile Packaging. Historical information about the dates of flooring installation may also be sufficient to rule in or out the possibility that flooring in a building contains asbestos. See these articles on types, ages, characteristics, ingredients, & inspection of different types of floor coverings:
Walter McCrone developed and amply documented the forensic microscopy procedures used to identify asbestos in products, air or dust samples. Certainly asbestos-certified labs who process large volumes of asbestos samples have developed efficient, high-speed procedures to keep the sample analysis costs down, and surely some of those experts have other tips and ideas for effective processing of floor tile samples besides what we will document here. However on occasion we need to work with less sample material, or very small asbestos floor tile sample fragments in our laboratory. Here we document and illustrate some suggestions for working with small fragments of vinyl-asbestos floor tiles to obtain material for microscopic examination in the laboratory. Preparing a Small Floor Tile Fragment for Microscopic Examination for Asbestos
Below (left) is a microphotograph of materials (probably limestone filler) scraped from the broken edge of the Wards vinyl asbestos floor tile shown above. And below (right) is a 1200x magnification photo taken in our laboratory, showing asbestos fibers teased out of the broken edge of a separate sample of floor tile tentatively identified as 2mm x 9"x9" Armstrong Excelon vinyl asbestos flooring ca 1954-1980). Because many fibers such as fiberglass and asbestos can be almost impossible to detect microscopically, especially in small fragments, unless they are mounted in a proper medium, Cargille certified refractive index liquids (e.g. n=1.550 or n=1.680) are used to mount asbestos-suspect fibers for microscopic examination.
Although McCrone instructs the technician to "tease out" fibers from the edge of a broken floor tile fragment, the "teasing out process" can be tricky if like the author (DF) you have stubby fingers and the sample is about 1cm square. We use a very small quantity of fast-setting glue to bond our floor tile fragment to a clean microscope slide. To the right of the floor tile fragment you'll see a drop of clean mounting fluid. We're using Cargille™ N=1.680 in this example. We'll use the droplet to secure fibres we remove from the sample.
At above left we show our probe under the stereo microscope, as we gently pick away material from the exposed edge of the glued floor tile sample fragment in order to expose a cluster of fibers for further examination. Our photo at above right shows that we check our mounting fluid droplet for obvious extraneous debris before using it. If the droplet becomes debris-loaded, it's easy to clean the slide and start with a new drop since we've glued down our sample. At below left a fiber cluster has been removed from the sample and carried to the nearby droplet of mounting fluid. We did not try to remove all of the debris from our fiber cluster as we wanted to keep the fiber bundle intact. At below right, we still haven't lost the sample as we further prepare the slide with a cover slip. If we are using the same slide and glued-sample to prepare a sequence of fiber trials at different Cargille liquid values, we note the refractive index on the slide so as to keep our lab data accurate.
Our photos, below show the asbestos fiber cluster from our vinyl asbestos floor tile under magnification and at different lighting conditions.
Our last photo (above right) show mineral fragments from the sample, possibly limestone. See ASBESTOS LIST of PRODUCTS and ASBESTOS PHOTO GUIDE to Materials Questions & Answers About Finding a Certified Asbestos Testing LaboratoryQuestion: where do I send a sample of my popcorn-painted ceiling to be tested for asbestos? J.P. New York CityReply: use a certified asbestos testing laboratory listed by your home stateMost state and provincial governments regulate and certify asbestos testing laboratories, and we recommend that where there are health, legal, or cost concerns, you should only use a certified and competent asbestos testing laboratory to examine material samples for asbestos content. Advice on Finding a Certified or Accredited Asbestos Testing LaboratoryThe National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) maintains a listing of accredited asbestos laboratories under the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP). Call NIST at (301) 975-4016. [1] An NVLAP directory of accredited asbestos test labs using the PLM (Polarized Light Microscopy) test method for asbestos fiber analsysis is found at this NIST site: http://ts.nist.gov/Standards/scopes/plmtm.htm An NVLAP directory of accredited asbestos test laboratories that use TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy) for asbestos identification is found at this second NIST website: http://ts.nist.gov/Standards/scopes/temtm.htm Examples of asbestos test lab listings in individual states: "Asbestos Fact Sheet: An Information Sheet for Parties Dealing with Asbestos." Florida Department of Environmental Protection. 7 November 2007 "Asbestos Regulation Frequently Asked Questions." Florida Department of Environmental Protection. 7 November 2007
"Candidate Information Booklet for the Asbestos Consultant and Asbestos Contractor Licensure Examination." Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation Bureau of Education and Testing. 7 November 2007
New York residents can find a list of certified asbestos test labs from the state department of health: New York State Department of Health, Wadsworth Center, "ELAP Labs Certified for Asbestos", found at http://www.wadsworth.org/labcert/elap/asbestos.html. Additional contact information for the Wadsworth Center: David Axelrod Institute Wadsworth Center NYS Department of Health P.O. Box 22002 Albany, New York 12201-2002. Or contact the New York State Department of Health Corning Tower Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY 12237 - Public Health Duty Officer Helpline 1-866-881-2809 Example of a Certified Asbestos Material Testing Laboratory ReportAs the New York State Department of Health has pointed out about ELAP Labs Certified for Asbestos:
And even though McCrone Research and other expert sources provide reliable procedures for reliable identification of asbestos in floor tiles by polarized-light microscopy, according to that same New York agency:
A possible explanation for that contradiction is that in addition to asbestos fibers there may be ultrafine non-fibrous asbestos filler material in various products that are more difficult to identify by PLM. An example of a simple asbestos test report from a certified asbestos testing lab is shown in this asbestos test result. However as we point out at ASBESTOS IDENTIFICATION IN buildings it is often quite easy to recognize asbestos-containing materials in buildings by visual inspection. There are some "asbestos lookalike" materials that could cause confusion, and there are some materials such as floor tiles whose asbestos content cannot be identified by eye. But other materials such as certain heating pipe insulation, asbestos millboard, certain asbestos fabrics, and others, can readily be identified by eye, and other materials can be identified as likely to contain asbestos based on the product and its age or date of manufacture. Details about proper and safe removal of asbestos materials are found at ASBESTOS REMOVAL, Amateur, Incomplete and Asbestos Removal, Certification. Questions & Answers regarding this article. Ask a Question or Search InspectAPediaHTML Comment Box is loading comments...
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