(C) Common Dreams
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ASBESTOS IN HOME: EXAMINING RISKS [1]

['Lisa Belkin']

Date: 1984-09-20

Federal officials are beginning to investigate - and express concern over - asbestos in the home, as inquiries continue into the presence and hazards of asbestos in schools and other public buildings.

Although the white, chalky mineral was used in the walls and ceilings of many homes built before the 1950's and in roofing shingles, vinyl floor tiles, pipe and furnace insulation and paints and patching compounds in homes built before 1978, little research has been done on the dangers of asbestos in home construction.

''By and large no one has been looking at homes,'' said Dr. Irving J. Selikoff of the Environmental Sciences Laboratory at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. ''The studies have been of shipyards, schools, mines, powerhouses, but not homes. Now it's forcing itself on our attention.''

''No one has any kind of numbers,'' said Sandra Eberle, program manager of the chemical hazards division of the Consumer Product Safety Commission in Washington. ''We don't have statistics on how many homes asbestos is in, and we don't know whether or not it poses a hazard in those homes.''

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[1] Url: https://www.nytimes.com/1984/09/20/garden/asbestos-in-home-examining-risks.html

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