12 Jul Workplace Safety Alert
The HVAC industry presents all sorts of Hazards to its employees, dangerous Gases, Extreme Heat, Tight Spaces, Bad Wiring to name a few. As the field of Indoor Air Quality continues to grow, more and more dangers are presenting themselves.
Insulation surrounding inline electric heating elements in buildings built pre 1980 generally contain asbestos.
Today ill briefly touch on one of mankind’s greatest deadly legacy’s ASBESTOS. By now everyone should know the risks, there is clear scientific evidence that breathing asbestos fibres can lead to lung cancer which often further develops into Mesothelioma. So the thought of Asbestos in a HVAC system should send chills through any building occupant as we spend around 90% of our time indoors breathing this air.
Asbestos is generally found in HVAC systems in building pre 1980. It was mostly used in the gaskets/sealant between duct joints and as insulation surrounding heating elements before reverse cycle systems became prominent. Even with reverse cycle systems in larger spaces they still can have these heater banks throughout the building to re-heat the air before delivery at the end of a long duct run
Particles of sprayed asbestos insulation that has traveled down a supply air duct
This asbestos containing insulation is in the airstream of the duct work of a HVAC system and could be blowing around the occupied space. It should be common practice for a HVAC contractor to satisfy themselves when they go into a new building as to the insulation in the heater banks. Often asbestos audits do not sample the HVAC systems. Efforts to remove this insulation also runs a high risk that it will fall into the HVAC system and cause more problems down the line. On top of this a HVAC Contractor who uses the wrong duct cleaning method runs the risk of disturbing the Asbestos even more and doing substantial damage to the their and the occupants health.
Airconstruct HVAC is the only BSA licensed air conditioning contractor in Queensland that holds an A class asbestos license and is trained to deal with the removal of asbestos from within the air conditioning systems.
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