Asbestos, am I being utterly crazy or is this unreasonable?

[Uniffo]

My neighbours are renovating. We are detached but still reasonably close. They have asbestos on some part of the outside of their house/along the garage frames etc. they are removing it all next week and casually told us that ‘I think you’re supposed to get it removed by specialists but we are just going to bin it.’ Meaning the wheely bins.

Could this not mean bits of asbestos come into our home? Our garden? Etc. we have a baby which is making me more worried.

You can remove some types of asbestos yourself. You need to dispose of it correctly though. We bought a kit in B&Q & did it ourselves.

Agreed. It's a danger to anyone coming into contact starting with whoever removes it and the refuse collectors.

My brother died 3 months after reaching retirement age from mesathomia caused from exposure to asbestos. They are putting themselves and their neighbours at serious risk of an early and horrible death. Report the bustards.

How does the OP even know its Asbestos? you cannot tell by looking & they don't sound like the sort of people who have done an asbestos survey.

Lots of people have very wrong assumptions about Asbestos, highly unlikely Licenced material would be used in a domestic setting.

Asbestos is common in older properties, not least in Artex and roofing materials for older sheds.

Agreed. People talking about family and friends who have died from asbestos poisoning- this is a tragedy of our times but these people were not next door to one asbestos garage removal. They were exposed directly over a sustained period of time.

OP as a next door neighbour your risk of exposure is minuscule, please don’t worry about that. Re putting it in the bins the collectors are highly unlikely to take it.

You could report to the council but without knowing whether or not it is asbestos, and what type, you might find it a bit of a waste of time

i think there needs to be better public information over asbestos, I’ve seen so many examples of people removing asbestos tiles from inside their homes having no idea what’s in them. My own brother removing an artex ceiling despite me suggesting he should get it tested before hand (oh it’ll be fine it’s not the sort that contains it…) we had some ceiling tiles in our basement tested that were degrading, it cost £100 and piece of mind that the dust is no longer falling on our kids bikes.

Please report to HSE and local council environmental health. It’s probably not a huge risk to you but the council needs to be informed if asbestos is being dumped in domestic bins

@Althenameshavegone
The issue is people think 'it won't happen to them, it's a one-off' and people generally don't want to spend ££££ getting it removed professionally.

It's not the lack of information it the 'I'm invincible' mentality and not my problem once it leaves the premises.

That's all a bit contradictory. It was widely used in domestic settings for many decades. What makes you assume it is not an older property?

Given the neighbours have said "I think you’re supposed to get it removed by specialists" it is highly likely to be asbestos sheeting. Try getting that out as an amateur without breaking it and releasing fibres, which is what leads to later problems. You don't have to be exposed constantly through working with it daily to get asbestosis or mesophelioma.

No amount of asbestos exposure is considered safe.

I moved from a council house this summer which had asbestos. I lived there for almost 28 years and the council knew it was there. They only decided to rip it all out after I had moved and now a new family has moved in. It's common in domestic settings.

It's usually OK until damaged or disturbed. Removing it is a specialist job.

How unbelievably ignorant and irresponsible of them . It is very serious . My FIL died from asbestos related cancer at only 60 . Please escalate & definitively get your baby away from this risk . Please let us know the outcome x

This is how, I'd guess, 90+% of asbestos gets removed from domestic settings. The only people that regularly comply with the regulations IME are major contractor group companies and they swerve it if they can get away with it

Totally irresponsible. The main risk is to your neighbours who are doing this work, but also to the binmen, who are likely to be exposed to clouds of dust laden with asbestos fibres when they try to empty the wheely bin. They will also take the fibres home on their clothing, shoes, hair and unwittingly expose their families to it as well.

Please report your neighbours - the environmental health department of your local council would be a good place to start..

Any building premier 2000 without an asbestos survey can be a problem. Fuse boxes, floor tiles, tanks, ropes in sash windows all can be ACMs..

But then what do you do with it?

Out of interest I have just checked asbestos disposal at our local waste site. They don’t take it. The council does a have scheme where each household can dispose of a small quantity, probably similar to a quarter of a single garage roof, once only. For that they charge nearly £100.

@AquaPeer Agreed. People talking about family and friends who have died from asbestos poisoning- this is a tragedy of our times but these people were not next door to one asbestos garage removal. They were exposed directly over a sustained period of time.

Actually no. The person I knew who died of mesothelioma worked for one day on a factory site where they were clearing asbestos. He was an apprentice at the time. (They gave him a glass of milk after “to wash the dust down” 🤦‍♀️)

One exposure and he died forty years later. The year after he retired. It doesn’t take sustained exposure, once is enough. OP is quite right to be concerned.

It’s illegal https://www.gov.uk/find-licences/licence-to-work-with-asbestos-england-wales-scotland#:~:text=Before%20carrying%20out%20any%20type,training%20from%20a%20competent%20provider.

If he was clearing a factory forty or fifty years ago it’s likely he came into contact with the far more hazardous brown or blue asbestos.

The thing about the internet and chatting to strangers is whilst I can well believe this is what you were told or think, objectively I know it’s highly unlikely to be to be the case.

We have already established that not all types of asbestos removal needs a licence.

You can’t do nothing for fear of them finding out you reported them. These people are willing to endanger the lives of countless strangers through their lazy ignorance. Time to make it abundantly clear what you think of them. If you fall out with them over this so be it. This is absolutely the hill you should die on. Better that then someone actually dying because of their selfish behaviour.

Ok. I knew the person well so objectively, I know it IS the case, thanks.

If The neighbours are clearing a garage it might be white asbestos, but it’s still worth doing the job properly. Breaking it up dry and shoving it in a wheely bin is not taking appropriate precautions.

I’m sure if mesothelioma is just an abstract, unfortunate disease to you, you’ll be much more blasé than those of us with direct experience. I do have that experience and I would not be happy if my neighbours were messing about like the OP’s.

He doesn’t know he was only exposed once though, and a test wouldn’t show when his disease was caused. So it’s pretty impossible to make that statement?

Why wouldn’t he know he was only exposed once?