Asbestos and electrical installations: danger and safety measures

Many electrical installations in Switzerland installed before 1989 still involve asbestos. If you work as an electrician, you need to know what the dangers are and what safety measures to take.

Asbestos and electrical installations: danger and safety measures

If you work close to or on electrical equipment and installations that can heat up and or catch fire, you probably know that they need to be insulated if they are to operate at their maximum capacity.

The problem is that one of the most widely used and effective insulators was asbestos which was applied in various types of materials.

Understanding asbestos in the electrical context

Panels and boards containing asbestos have long been used to protect electrical installations against fire. In most cases, these were rigid panels or lightweight boards, in the latter case the asbestos was only lightly bound. The consequences were inevitably serious health risks.

In reality, professionals such as electricians may come into contact with asbestos far too often, and not all of them know whether this material is present in the buildings they work on. Some of the crafts men are unaware of the correct methods for handling and manipulating asbestos containing materials.

In Switzerland, between the 1950s and 1989, asbestos was widely used to insulate electrical installations and to prevent sparks or electrical shocks from injuring the occupants of a building.

Today, the maintenance of electrical systems therefore requires solid skills and a thorough knowledge of the building. This is even more important when it comes to repairing electrical installations in buildings that were originally built with asbestos containing materials.

Electrical installations in homes built before the mid-1980s were almost always made with asbestos. Electrical components of the main electrical panel were often installed on asbestos fiber boards. The boards themselves were often painted to give them a marble like appearance. Also, the wooden frames of such installations were internally lined with thin asbestos boards or cardboards. Such lightweight materials consist of almost pure asbestos and were popular because they were easy to cut in size and to fix by using nails, screws and even tackers. These lightweight materials were also popular to be mounted under electrical devices like lamps, switches or sockets. Sometimes prefabricated asbestos cement products like canals or channels were used to conduct bundles of cables through the building along ceilings or walls.

Health risks associated with exposure to asbestos

Asbestos is made up of fibers that divide longitudinally, so it keeps this aspect down to a size of a few thousandth of a millimeter. This is why it is so dangerous when inhaled, as it can penetrate deep into the alveoli of the lungs. The health risks associated with the use of asbestos therefore arise from the possible release of microscopic fibers from the materials into the environment.

The most dangerous materials are those that easily release fibers into the air, i.e. those that are light-weight, whereas it is much more difficult to release fibers from compact materials. As a result, asbestos cement (eternit), which is a compact material, is much less dangerous than the relatively soft and fragile materials that are relatively common in the context of electrical installations.

If you damage or disturb materials containing asbestos, ultrafine fibers are released into the air. Inhaling these fibers can cause serious illness. These diseases are not always immediately apparent, but once diagnosed they are often extremely serious and, in some cases, fatal.

Here are some of the diseases caused by exposure to asbestos:

Mesothelioma: A cancer that affects the protective lining of the lungs and lower digestive tract. It is almost exclusively associated with exposure to asbestos and, once diagnosed, is almost always fatal.
Asbestos-related lung cancer : The number of deaths from asbestos-related lung cancer is about the same as the number of deaths from mesothelioma.
Asbestosis: Scarring of the lungs after heavy exposure, which causes breathlessness and can lead to death.
Pleural thickening: After heavy exposure to asbestos, the lining of the lung can thicken and inflate, causing breathlessness and discomfort.

If you suspect the presence of asbestos in your electrical installation, an asbestos test and diagnosis carried out by specialists is an absolute health necessity.

Identifying asbestos in the context of electrical installations

Electricians need to be particularly careful when it comes to buildings constructed between the 1930s and 1980s, as there is a good chance that various materials containing asbestos are still present.

In addition to the applications mentioned before, some electrical devices themselves are likely to contain asbestos:

Electrical circuit breakers
Electrical insulation
Electrical partitions
Fuse boxes

If these devices are still in good condition, the owner has nothing to worry about. However, when they are damaged and can therefore release asbestos dust into the domestic environment, they become a real threat.

So how do you identify asbestos? What does asbestos look like? How do you recognize asbestos? In reality, identifying asbestos can be very difficult without the training and experience of a professional. In other words, you can’t always tell whether a material contains asbestos simply by looking at it.

To the eye, asbestos fibers are so tiny that they are almost invisible. If you suspect that your electrical installation contains asbestos, you can have it sampled for an asbestos test by a laboratory.

We are a specialist asbestos detection company and we offer 3 practical services to help you find out if your electrical installation is contaminated by asbestos:

Evaluation based on photos: You send us a photo of a suspect material or component and fill in a form with the necessary information, such as the date the building was constructed. An expert will analyze the photo to assess whether asbestos is potentially present.
Asbestos analysis with sampling: you take a sample of a material and send it to our laboratories to identify the asbestos.
We connect you with an asbestos diagnostician, who will come to your premises to assess the situation and take asbestos samples if needed.

Safety measures for working with electrical components

Are you planning some improvements to your home and suspect that your electrical system may involve asbestos-containing materials? You should call in a professional who has the equipment and knowledge to identify these hazardous substances and tell you how to have them removed and disposed without taking any risks.

Also, if you’re an electrician, we recommend that you ask the owner of the house or flat you’re working on if he or she is aware (or not) of the presence of asbestos. And of course, if nobody knows for sure, inspection and diagnostic measures should be put in place before any electrical work begins.

Finally, there are a number of actions you can take to minimize the risk of exposure to asbestos and carry out electrical work safely. These include

Check the presence of asbestos with an asbestos diagnostics company
Wear personal protective equipment, e.g.a protective mask (FFP3)
Do not bring work clothes home with you
Use effective vacuum cleaners with HEPA filters to reduce the amount of dust.
Do not eat, drink or smoke in the immediate work area
Do not sweep up dust or debris

The more you know about the dangers of asbestos in your work, the safer you can stay.

Testing and eliminating asbestos in the electrical context

The only way to find out whether a building contains asbestos is to carry out an asbestos test. Asbestos removal and disposal must then be carried out by a company approved for this type of work.

If the asbestos containing material is in good condition and unlikely to be disturbed, it can be left in place and monitored over time. On the other hand, if the asbestos containing material is in poor condition or is likely to be damaged during renovation work, it must be removed beforehand!

Removal requirements depend on the type and quantity of asbestos containing materials. In any case, asbestos removal in the context of electrical installations must follow very strict protocols.

If you need asbestos diagnosis services, don’t hesitate to contact us. We can quickly identify the likelihood of the presence of asbestos in your electrical installation and advise you on how to proceed with its removal and disposal in complete safety.