AC
Sheet
See
Cement
Sheet
Adhesives
Industrial adhesives
commonly contained
asbestos, usually
chrysotile.
Air conditioning duct
insulation
Internal sections of duct
work may be internally
insulated within fire rated
asbestos board.
Air conditioning gussets
Made from woven
chrysotile.
Aprons
Made from woven
chrysotile.
Arc shields
Found on electrical
switchboards. Made from
moulded asbestos cement
sheet. Also known as flash
boards.
Automotive body
underseal
Bituminous sealants often
contained asbestos.
Usually chrysotile.
Battery boxes
Battery boxes in older cars
comprised of pitch, rubber
and crocidolite.
Bituminous membranes
Used as water proofing on
rooftops and floors. Usually
contains chrysotile, but
sometimes amosite or
crocidolite.
Blackboards
Blackboards made from
painted asbestos cement
sheet.
Blankets
Made from woven
chrysotile or crocidolite,
often containing internal
loose fill asbestos
insulation. Used for thermal
insulation/protection of
steam pipe valves/flanges
and as fire insulation in
penetrations.
Boiler insulation
Large industrial boilers
often containing sprayed
asbestos insulation
beneath outer metal
cladding and as insulation
on associated duct work.
Smaller commercial boilers
insulated with asbestos
blocks or composite
materials applied to the
outer surface of the boiler
and clad with calico or
metal sheeting. Various
other asbestos products
associated with boilers
including seals, gaskets,
fire rated board etc.
Bracket insulation
Sprayed asbestos applied
to structural building
brackets to provide fire
insulation.
Braid
Made from woven
chrysotile.
Brake and clutch linings
Resin impregnated
asbestos braid used on all
vehicles, lifts, industrial
lifting equipment etc.
Cable sheaths
Woven chrysotile sheath
around electrical cables.
Calorifier insulation
Provides thermal insulation
to hot water calorifiers.
Insulation generally
contains amosite (brown
asbestos), with an external
cladding of calico or metal.
Cement sheet
Asbestos cement sheet
(also known as fibrocement
or AC sheet) may contain
chrysotile, amosite and/or
crocidolite. Use of
crocidolite ceased in the
late 1960's. Later cement
sheet products contained
only chrysotile until its use
ceased in the early to mid
1980's.
Most commonly found as
flat or corrugated sheeting,
available profiles included
shadowline, highline,
coverline, ribline and
striated.
Wide range of applications
including: eaves, roofing
sheets, roof shingles,
external and internal wall
cladding, ceilings, underlay,
guttering, downpipes,
conduits, flues, water
pipes, fences, ceramic tile
backing, fish ponds, planter
boxes, pots, phone box
tops, switchboard linings,
fire place linings, shower
recesses, arc chutes, arc
shields, underground pits.
Cinema screens
Made from woven
chrysotile.
Cooling towers
Outer cladding and internal
filler from asbestos cement
sheet or internal plastic
filler containing asbestos.
Curtains
Made from woven
chrysotile.
Door seals
Seals of doors on ovens,
fire proof cabinets,
furnaces, boilers etc made
from chrysotile.
Durabestos & Durawall
Asbestos cement sheet
products manufactured in
Australia by Wunderlich.
Electrical appliances
Electrical conduits
Insulations of various
appliances including irons,
hair dryers, TV sets,
projectors. toasters etc.
Moulded asbestos cement
sheet.
Exhaust pipe insulation
Exhaust pipes from
engines such as generators
found within buildings were
often insulated within
asbestos, similar to that
found on hot water and
steam pipes.
Fake brick cladding
See cement sheet. Fake
bricks attached to asbestos
cement sheet backing.
Used for external cladding
of houses.
Fibrocement
See cement sheet.
Fibrolite
Asbestos cement sheet
manufactured by James
Hardie in Australia.
Filter materials
Fire blankets
Used in both powdered
form and as a filter paper,
asbestos was utilised in the
beverage and food
manufacturing industries
for product filtering, within
gas masks and in HEPA
filters.
Made from woven
chrysotile.
Fire curtains
Made from woven
chrysotile, used for fire
protection in theatres
between the stage and
seating area.
Fire door insulation
Made from woven
chrysotile, used for fire
protection in theatres
between the stage and
seating area.
Fire rated board
Medium density asbestos
board with a variety of uses
including fire door
insulation, fire walls, fume
cupboard lining etc.
Fire stop insulation
Either a woven asbestos
bag containing loose fill
asbestos insulation or a
composite asbestos mix,
used to fire proof
penetrations.
Fishponds
Constructed from moulded
asbestos cement sheet.
Flowerpots
Constructed from moulded
asbestos cement sheet.
Flues
Asbestos cement flues on
heaters, hot water services,
sanitary napkin
incinerettes.
Fume cupboards
Walls, benchtop and/or
baffle plates made from
asbestos cement sheet or
fire rated board.
Fume cupboards
Walls, benchtop and/or
baffle plates made from
asbestos cement sheet or
fire rated board.
Fuse blankets
Small pieces of woven
asbestos braid used to stop
arcing in high voltage
ceramic fuse blocks.
Furnace insulation
Internal walls of industrial
furnaces lined with fire
rated asbestos board.
Galbestos
Galvanised iron sheets with
a coating of chrysotile on
each side, covered by a
coating of paint or bitumen.
Available in flat, corrugated
and other profiles.
Manufactured from the
1950's through to the
1970's.
Gaskets
Gaskets for flanges
commonly contain
chrysotile.
Gauss mats
Asbestos impregnated wire
mats used in laboratory
applications.
Gloves
Made from woven
chrysotile.
Hats
Made from woven
chrysotile.
Heat banks
Asbestos containing
insulation blocks or
millboard used in some
brands of both domestic
and commercial electric
heat banks up until the
early 1980's. Brand names
included Potteron, Auto-hot
and Kleenheat.
Ironing board covers
Made from woven
asbestos.
Laboratory benchtops
Made from compressed
asbestos cement sheet.
Laboratory mats
Commonly found in school
laboratories under Bunsen
burners. Made from
asbestos cement sheet or
fire rated asbestos board.
Laminates
Containing a thin layer of
asbestos paper beneath
the outer decorative
coating. Used extensively
in ship building and in high
temperature applications.
Lift doors
Internal core often
containing asbestos
insulation.
Light fittings
Light fittings may contain
asbestos cable sheathing
or millboard seals.
Limpet
"Limpet" asbestos is a
trade name used by J.W.
Roberts Limited to market
sprayed asbestos
insulation. The "Limpet"
process included sprayed
amosite, chrysotile and
crocidolite.
Limpet board
Perforated "peg board"
containing asbestos. Main
application was to cover
sprayed limpet asbestos,
although was also used to
cover synthetic mineral
fibre insulation batts or
blankets to provide a fire
rating.
Marinite
A fire rated asbestos board
used in ship building.
Mattresses
Made from woven
chrysotile cloth, often with
internal loose asbestos fill.
Used to cover pipe flanges,
diesel power generator
exhaust pipes etc.
Millboard
A soft asbestos containing
cardboard like material.
Normally containing
chrysotile, but occasionally
contains amosite and
crocidolite. Many uses as a
thermal and electrical
insulator.
Monocote
Sprayed asbestos
insulation containing a
small percentage of
chrysotile.
Mortar
Oven insulation
Asbestos often added to
mortar.
Internal lining of fire rated
board and woven asbestos
seals.
Packing materials
Asbestos packing within
valves and stopcocks.
Usually chrysotile.
Paints
Asbestos packing within
valves and stopcocks.
Usually chrysotile.
Pipe insulation
Provide thermal insulation
to steam and hot water
pipes. The most commonly
encountered insulation
installed as preformed
sections containing amosite
(brown asbestos), with an
external cladding of calico
or metal sheathing. Small
diameter pipes may also be
insulated by wrapping
strips of flexible asbestos
containing board.
Pipes
Asbestos cement pipes
used for fresh water supply,
stormwater and sewerage
systems.
Plaster cornice adhesive
Mostly contained chrysotile,
but sometimes amosite.
Plastics
Asbestos was incorporated
as a filler material in many
common plastic polymers
such as PVC,
polypropylene and nylon.
Proximity suits
Woven chrysotile full body
suits used by fire fighters.
The more modern suits are
internally lines with nonasbestos fabric, with the
external surface sealed
with an aluminium coating
to assist in reflection heat.
Re-heat box insulation
Fire rated asbestos board
within re-heat boxes of air
conditioning systems.
Render
Asbestos often added to
cement based renders.
Roadway pits
Constructed of moulded
asbestos cement.
Rope
Generally made from
chrysotile, but sometimes
crocidolite. May also
contain amosite.
Screeds
Floor leveling screeds often
contained asbestos.
Shadowline
Moulded asbestos cement
sheeting.
Shotgun shell wads
Packed with white
asbestos.
Silbestos
Sprayed asbestos
insulation utilising
crocidolite from the
Wittenoom mine.
shoes
Spackle
Made from woven
chrysotile. Reported to cure
corns and bunions.
Asbestos present mainly in
the top-coat.
Sprayed insulation
Sprayed asbestos
insulation was used for fire
protection, thermal
insulation, condensation
control and acoustic
insulation. Various trade
names for sprayed
asbestos insulation
included Limpet (amosite,
chrysotile or crocidolite),
Asbestospray, Cafco,
Silbestos (crocidolite) and
Monokote (chrysotile).
Steriliser insulation
Asbestos blocks or
composite materials
applied to the outer surface
of the steriliser unit and
clad with calico or metal
sheeting.
String
Composed of chrysotile or
crocidolite. Applications
include windings on
welding electrodes and
thread for sewing together
various asbestos textile
products.
Steam engine insulation
Boiler units of steam
locomotives insulated with
asbestos blankets and
various asbestos products.
Super Six
Corrugated asbestos
cement sheet.
Manufactured by Hardies.
Switchboards
Older black electrical
switchboards manufactured
from coal tar pitch and
asbestos (usually
chrysotile). Brand names
include "zelemite" and
"miscolite".
Talc
Asbestos (usually tremolite
or anthophyllite) can be
found as a natural
contaminant in talc.
Tasbestos
Asbestos cement sheet
manufactured by Goliath
Portland Cement Co. in
Australia.
Telecommunications
pits
Underground pits made
from moulded asbestos
cement sheet.
Telephone boxes
The dome top on the old
red phone boxes was made
from moulded asbestos
cement sheet.
Textiles
Various products made
from woven chrysotile or
crocidolite.
Tilux
Laminated flat asbestos
cement sheet with various
decorative pattern designs.
General used in wet areas
such as shower recesses,
bathrooms and kitchens.
Underlay
Asbestos millboard or
cement sheet used as
underlay to vinyl flooring
and cement sheet used as
underlay to ceramic floor
tiles.
Vermiculite
Asbestos (usually tremolite)
can be found as a natural
contaminant in vermiculite.
Vinyl floor tiles
Chrysotile asbestos used in
vinyl tiles until about 1985.
Older tiles contained up to
28% asbestos, while the
tiles manufactured in the
1980's contained 8%
asbestos.
Vinyl floor sheeting
Asbestos millboard/paper
sheeting used as backing
to upper layer of non
asbestos vinyl sheeting.
Weatherboards
Woodgrain textured
asbestos cement sheet
weatherboards.
Welding blankets
Made from woven
chrysotile.
Welding rods
Welding rods were
wrapped with asbestos
string. Chrysotile and/or
crocidolite.
White asbestos
See chrysotile.
Window seals
White asbestos braid used
as seals within window
frames. Usually associated
with asbestos cement
sheet clad roofs (e.g.
skylights associated with
sawtooth roofs).
Zelemite
See switchboards.