Topic: water from asbestos roofing

[wilki]

Our lottie is at the end of a long run of council owned garages, 8 in total and the guttering runs along them to a downpipe on to the lottie, in bad weather we have our allotment drenched. I have installed 4 water butts in a row and they are allways full to the top, we water everything from these.
The garages have corrugated asbestos roofs, will the water be safe for watering?

[Svea]

afaik, the asbestos in these corrgated roof tiles/ thingies is safe, unless the roofing is damaged. i.e. when the tiles break, that's when some asbestos *might* be released.

if the garage roofs look in good order, i wouldnt worry about it.

why dont you call the council and ask them about this issue - a generic question will do if you dont want them knowing about your water butt arrangement.

[wilki]

I'll ask them, I'm not bothered if they see the butts, there is no drain for the water to go down so it would just run onto the land and it would be more soaked :-X
I think it needs a soak away. the land is unworkable in march and April.

[Robert_Brenchley]

It's only breathing asbestos dust which is dangerous. There doesn't seem to be any chance of that here, so don't worry. Are you sure it's asbestos, or could it be the substitute? If you're sure it's asbestos, let Environmental Health know.

[Columbus]

Hi Wilki,

There is a legal reqirement based on something from the EU for councils to audit asbestos dangers that came in last year (or the year before). Our city council allotments office had leaflets about it and I had them visit my plot to check out concrete-asbestos roofing that had been used to edge my plot by a previous tenant. They did it in a couple of days.

Col

An old thread on this http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,57/topic,6649.0

[Robert_Brenchley]

When old asbestos sheets were reported on my site a couple of years ago, they had to be removed by specialists. If it really is asbestos, get it reported.

[wilki]

thanks to you all for the advise, will tell the council.

[snoppers]

i used to work in asbestos removal, the garage roofs will be asbestos cement which means the fibres will be bonded together unlike the different coloured asbestos. the water from it will be okay to use for the allotment .