Asbestos in vintage hairdryer

[Radio_Dave]

I've just got myself a vintage Hawkins Supreme hairdryer. Am I right to suspect that the heater insulation is make from asbestos and not something "nice", like mica?

TIA
David

[newlite4]

Hmm, it does look like white asbestos Dave, commonly used in many domestic products at the time, brown and blue are the types to particularly avoid where possible. It probably makes you reluctant to test it, but it would have had many hours of productive use over its lifetime.
Neil

[Radio_Dave]

Thanks for the reply.

That's a little disappointing as I'm not prepared to use it with asbestos in... I wonder if I could replace it with mica or something?

David

Try this... http://www.par-group.co.uk/high-temp.../Sindanyo.aspx

[Lucien Nunes]

You can't reliably judge which forms of asbestos are in an ACM (asbestos-containing material) by the colour of the finished product. Something that looks grey could just as easily contain crocidolite 'blue' or amosite 'brown' asbestos as the common 'white' chrysotile. What you can tell however is whether the material is of high density e.g. asbestos cement which is rigid and does not readily shed fibres, or low density such as woven fabric which can easily act as a source of stray fibres. This distinction is probably more important as far as risk management of vintage equipment is concerned.

All sorts of electrical devices contain asbestos (sometimes concealed within other substances), much of it however is of high density and relatively low hazard unless cut or broken. Sindanyo itself used to be an ACM, widely used in the electrical industry, although is now asbestos-free. I tend to avoid moving or using anything with exposed low-density materials unless carefully controlled and contained, otherwise I accept and monitor the risk and carry on as usual if there is little chance of material being disrupted. I keep an asbestos register for my collection but it is so widespread that it's almost quicker to list things that don't use ACMs than those that do!

Having said all that, many hairdryer elements were wound on ceramic formers so perhaps those are the ones to use...

Lucien

[Peter.N.]

Thousands of people lived in asbestos houses after the war, I think a few still are, I had quite a few customers and friends that lived in them with apparantly no ill effects. On the other hand we have just been to the funeral of a friend who had asbestosis, he was a painter, worked in hospitals and the like with asbestos pipe lagging, my wifes uncle died from the same working on ships.

Peter

[evingar]

My Grandfather died from "Lung Cancer" in the late 60s. He certainly worked with asbestos regularly - being in the building trade when it was the new "wonder" material. With modern diagnosis we reckon it would have been found to be at least a contributing factor to his death. I dread to thing how many of his generation succumbed to this wretched stuff - we will of course never know. IMHO steer well clear, it's simply not worth risk.

[trabant]

Its asbestos dust well fibres that are the issue not solid material such as the sheeting used in garage construction roofing material etc . The lagging on pipes in hospitals schools etc was generally a loose type of asbestos that allowed fibres to escape , these once trapped in the lungs cannot be removed and cause scarring of the tissue .
Its worth remembering that most car brake linings contained a lot of asbestos until about twenty years ago and in my time in the auto trade i have never heard of anyone being killed by it .
the type of asbestos used in the hair dryers insulation will no doubt be of the compressed variety and was probably entirely safe when it was constructed .
However i wouldn't fancy something blowing air over ancient asbestos in my general direction .

[Ekco-Scott]

I use my hairdryer every day it has its original Asbestos element holder (don't no the proper name) it is the hard type and i have no worrys with it. maybe I'm just crazy But I think it isn't of any danger unless its damaged. The fibres aren't going any were in a hairdryer it's the hard type.

[Peter.N.]

I have breathed in my fair share of brake and clutch dust as I have been maintaining my own cars since I started driving in the mid '50s. When my wifes uncle died we were talking to the coroner who said that some farmers were beginning to develop asbestosis and they though that was probably due to working on tractors and other vehicles with asbestos brake and clutch linings.

I was talking to a friend who knows something about these things recently, I was asking why some people get it and others in the same circumstances don't, smoking can apparantly be a factor, he was saying that most of what we breath in we breath out again, but smoking causes a stickiness that makes the fibres lodge in the lungs.

I have lost three friends to the disease, two died within about a year of being diagnosed but one they were able to give some treatment and he lasted about another five years.

Not a very pleasant thing to die of or a pleasant subject to discuss but to put it in perspective, far more people die from other causes

Peter

[murphyv310]

I agree we need to put things in perspective. The hard compressed asbestos element support in a hairdryer is very unlikely to shed any fibres, there of course may contributing factors that may cause the fibres to release, for instance a sudden shock if the hairdryer was dropped, or a period of storage in a damp environment etc.
I would have no qualms about using it though and that is after a friend died of asbestosis, he was involved in the stripping of asbestos from old factories and the quantities were very large.

[dennishoy]

I disagree. Fibres will be shed from the surface of asbestos-containing products all the time they are being used. The heating and cooling cycle of a hair dryer will exacerbate the problem. We are only talking of a few fibres per cubic metre of air to warrant a work area to be put in quarantine.

Asbestos affects people differently and it has been proved that just one, single exposure to the fibres can lead to fatal illness later in life whereas others have worked with it with no ill efects whilst the missus has died from washing the old man's contaminated overalls.

The sad thing is that it is often the innocent that suffer. Personally, I would seek professional advice from a company which has the necessary certification for testing, removal and disposal of this lethal stuff. Just one fibre lodged in your lungs may kill you one day, but more likely, someone else. Very young lungs are most susceptible.

One of my best mates runs a company that removes asbestos from trains (Bruce Knights of Knights Rail Services) so I probably know more about the subject than most of you. It is a truly slow and horribly painful death.