asbestos mats

[Labbie]

We had a network meeting yesterday, so were told perhaps us older schools still had asbestos mats, used as heat mats. As far as I know, ( One side is rough surface the other smooth) I have managed to get all our heat mats and bits together. And perhaps some one out their has another idea on what to look for.

[Voice]

Hi Sue,
I have been working in schools for 30 years. Even in those dark old days our bench mats were non asbestos. In this school they are non asbestos and as you say, one side is smooth and one side is rough. How you would physical test though, I do not know.
Maree

[lada]

I think Voice is right. We call our heat proof mats "asbestos mats", but they are not. I am not sure where to find out.
Lada

[bigmack]

This is an old topic but I wonder if any new info has come to light .
Last week at my other school , the HT asked me to collect all of the heat mats and dispose of them as she was convinced they were asbestos.
They look exactly the same as the ones we use at this school so I bought them here . Head Teacher 1 is happy they are gone and saved $250 to dispose of and head teacher 2 is happy we got some freebies

[linotas]

We had a big stocktake of all out mats a couple of years ago. I was told to sit aside any that were rough on one side, smooth on the other and were "flecked or speckled" We had about 10 or so which were sent for testing and apparently half tested positive and were disposed of.

I know the mats we used in high school in the mid to late 80's were definitely asbestos. As our school is coming up to its 150yr anniversary, there were bound to be some floating around.

[bigmack]

Thanks Linotas .

Hmmm, I think I know the ones you are talking about with the Checker type impression on one side .....I have seen one or two of these at my main school. I will remove them from service .....if in doubt chuck Em out ......but then, that's the theory that Head Teacher applied .

I just checked all the ones I scored and most are brand new .

What worries me more than the asbestos is what all the techno colour stains and lumps are on the rest of them ....seems they have no GHS labeling on them

My offsider thinks I'm worrying about nothing ....his logic , and it makes some sense is that if there was any chance that our heat mats contained asbestos that the Department would have come down like a ton of bricks and issued an immediate removal years ago .

Linotas , I wonder where you took your suspect items for testing and did they charge more than they were worth to get tested .

[linotas]

Not sure where or how they were tested. They were taken away by our WHS compliance officer and we were just given the feedback. I know that there is a "quick " test that can be done on suspected material as there is an asbestos audit being done in our systemic catholic schools at the moment by an outside company who is coming in and testing onsite. My husband works in construction and it costs them an enormous amount to get things sampled and sent away for testing.