Everyone who decides to do roofing work himself, or simply begins to look for materials for his roof and opts for slate, sooner or later faces one very problematic issue. In its most general form, this question sounds like this - is slate harmful, and if so, how to minimize this harm.
The real (or imaginary) harm from slate is the subject of many discussions that take place both on construction sites and on Internet forums.
Without claiming to be the ultimate truth, let's try to figure out which components slate can harm human health, and how to avoid it. And we will start with an analysis - what is included in the composition of slate.
Slate production technology
Today, slate is still one of the most popular roofing materials.
However, there is some confusion in the nomenclature of slate, because slate is called both straight and wavy slate sheets (i.e. classic asbestos-cement slate), and natural slate (natural slate), and even the so-called "euro slate" - bituminous sheets of a wavy profile .
To avoid confusion, in this article we will consider exactly asbestos-cement slate - after all, the lion's share of health claims goes to this particular roofing material.
For the production of such a slate, only three components are used:
- Water
- asbestos fiber
- Portland cement
Some brands of slate are painted in addition to this. The paint, in addition to improving the appearance of the slate roof, also significantly increases its service life, covering the slate with a kind of film and preventing precipitation from entering the pores of the slate.
It is asbestos fiber as a source of carcinogenic asbestos that is considered as the main component that determines the harmfulness of slate to human health.
However, not all asbestos is equally harmful - and therefore it is worthwhile to figure out which asbestos fiber is used to produce domestic slate.
A few words about asbestos
What is such a substance as asbestos?
In fact, asbestos is not a single substance, but the name of a group of natural fibrous substances. This group includes:
- Chrysotile asbestos (which comes from a mineral called serpentite)
- Amphibole-asbestos (minerals actinolite, anthophyllite, crocidolite, etc.)
The main difference between these groups of asbestos minerals is that amphibole-asbestos is acid-resistant and dissolves in alkaline environments, while chrysotile asbestos is alkali-resistant, but dissolves without much difficulty in an acidic environment.
Such characteristics determine the unconditional harm to the human body caused by amphibole-asbestos.
And here we come to the origins of the opinion about the dangers of slate for human health. The thing is that in Europe, from where, in fact, this opinion spread, chrysotile asbestos materials are practically not found, and it was amphibole asbestos that was used for the production of slate.
After scientists have identified (quite rightly!) the harm from amphibole-asbestos, it is quite natural that many asbestos-containing building materials, including slate, fell under the ban.
In the wake of publications about the dangers of amphibole-asbestos (not without economic reasons, of course!) Domestic chrysotile-asbestos slate has also earned itself a bad reputation - the harm from which cannot be compared with the harm of slate containing amphibole.
Thus, if you use domestic slate for roofing, you should not be afraid of the negative consequences of asbestos exposure to the body. This is due to the fact that chrysotile asbestos, which is extremely harmless to humans, is mined on our territory - and it is this that is used for the production of slate.
Note! Naturally, the thesis about the safety of chrysotile asbestos does not apply to the production of slate, so companies producing slate strive to minimize the contact of workers with asbestos raw materials.
Safety
Naturally, the harmlessness of chrysotile-asbestos slate does not mean that safety precautions should be neglected during roofing work and personal protective equipment should be abandoned.
Yes, at roofing worksassociated with cutting and drilling slate (and therefore with the formation of a large amount of asbestos-cement dust), you must use:
- Eye protection goggles
- Respirator to protect the lungs and mucous membranes of the mouth and nasopharynx from dust particles.
Asbestos-free slate
However, sometimes it happens that the arguments in favor of the safety of slate are not enough. In this case, you can pay attention to such roofing material as aluminum slate.
The composition of non-asbetic slate includes:
- Water
- Portland cement
- Asbestos-free fibrous material
- Tinting component (dye)
Note! Instead of asbestos fiber, a variety of natural and artificial materials can be used in this roofing material: jute, cellulose, basalt fiber, fiberglass, polyvinyl, polyacrylonitrile, etc.
Asbestos-free slate is durable, frost-resistant and has a high degree of hydro and noise insulation. It is non-flammable and easy to paint, so it can be used as an alternative to traditional asbestos-containing slate.
In addition, asbestos-free slate is often much lighter than asbestos-cement slate, so it can be used to cover roofs with insufficient bearing capacity.
However, asbestos-free slate is much more expensive than asbestos-cement, which is why this roofing material is still inferior to slate in distribution.
After all, whatever one may say, a slate roof is first of all "cheap and cheerful", and only then - reliable, practical, etc.
As you can see, if you approach the issue comprehensively, you can figure out in a short time how harmful slate really is, and whether it can be used as a roof in a residential building.
Therefore, if you decide to make a roof from slate, do it, but remember that there are alternatives, and that no matter how cheap the roofing material is, it must be certified.
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