Asbestos is one of the construction and demolition waste (C&DW) component which is very much hazardous to living being. C&DW remains in the landfills for so many years, asbestos leachate into the ground or resist the leachate?
If you have found asbestos in C&DW , the waste can not be disposed in landfill so easily. It is marked as "Hazardous waste" HazMat
Irrespective of whether the asbestos is friable or non-friable it is defined as Hazardous. To transport the said waste, it has to be packed in a bag very very properly with the required thickness in a TSDF approved by Competent Authorities.
When the asbestos is in the bag, there is no exposure to human. This does not leach. It is not the property of asbestos to resist leaching but packed as per the specification prevents it to do so in TSDF
Asbestos thus does not leach to the ground.
Your question is very good. I have seen in the past, some instances where rain-water harvesting for human use was tapped from asbestos roofed dwellings. With time, there was out-cry that asbestos causes cancer and such rainwater harvesting using asbestos roofed dwellings should be avoided....fast forward, and word was going round that we should abandon rainwater harvesting from such dwellings only when the asbestos roofing material was new. As it became very old, the harvesting was being allowed. The import of this was that asbestos fiber, which is the agent of concern for cancer, was not available as the roofing material aged; whether true or not, I cannot say as I have not seen experiments, confirming this assertion. However, if this narrative is confirmed, then it would mean, the asbestos fiber from demolished dwellings, hoping the roofing material was old may by analogy mean the asbestos fiber is not leachable: I am assuming that the material is being discarded without being broken into pieces, which coincidentally, if it happened, could let the bonded fibers become loose. Let my research gate colleagues, similarly educate me on this.
Thanks @Saeed Mwaguni Sir for your kind apprecuation, actually the C&DW contains broken pieces of asbestos that means it may leachate or may come into the atmosphere. Actually there is a lot of concern about handling of C&DW because of presence of "Asbestos and Lead". Asbestos may not be a problem if it is mingled with rubble and can resist the fibers to escape in air.
If you have found asbestos in C&DW , the waste can not be disposed in landfill so easily. It is marked as "Hazardous waste" HazMat
Irrespective of whether the asbestos is friable or non-friable it is defined as Hazardous. To transport the said waste, it has to be packed in a bag very very properly with the required thickness in a TSDF approved by Competent Authorities.
When the asbestos is in the bag, there is no exposure to human. This does not leach. It is not the property of asbestos to resist leaching but packed as per the specification prevents it to do so in TSDF
Asbestos thus does not leach to the ground.
Thanks Dr. K.N. Sheth Sir, I really recommend your answer, but if the waste is asbestos is disposed off in landfill, does the asbestos leachate into the ground when it rains on the landfill or the asbestos remain intact and resist leachate?
In general asbestos is not considered hazardous when it is wet. It is primarily hazardous by inhalation (lung cancer). The risk for illness due to injestion is low and not well known (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1474636/).
Could it be transported away from a landfill by water and then released to the air? Maybe. Depends how is it buried and it the landfill was breached. Friable material such as pipe insulation is more likely to release to the air or be washed away than construction materials. Asbestos is a mineral and itself is not soluble in rain water, so unless small fibers are physically transported by leachate and then exposed to air where it could dry out, the risk of leachate should be low.
I suppose it's possible it could enter ground water, but hopefully there are not groundwater wells in the vicinity of a landfill. Since it is not soluble, asbestos would not travel nearly as far in groundwater as other more soluble hazardous leachate components.
Thanks John Whitaker for the meaningful answer and for the material provided. this means if asbestos is present in the landfill, there is no danger of leachate but may be dangerous if released in air. If construction material containing asbestos is not broken or kept as such will not be a danger. It should not be exposed to environment if broken.
How can we take the asbestos material friable or non friable to the landfill when law prohibits?
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