The following information we would like to credit the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality for. Arizona Fire and Water Restoration does Asbestos Abatement, but we would like to also educate you on what Asbestos is and the costs of removal. We believe that everyone should be informed enough to make the best decisions possible for them!!!

What is Asbestos?

Asbestos is a word used to describe six naturally occurring incombustible minerals. Three of the most common types are chrysotile, amosite, and crocidolite. Asbestos is a mineral compound of silicon, oxygen, hydrogen, and various metals. Asbestos minerals formed millions of years ago when heat, pressure, or chemical activity changed the physical and chemical characteristics of pre-existing rock. Unlike other minerals, which consist of tightly bound crystals, asbestos minerals are characterized by the presence of densely packed bundles of fibers.

Asbestos was a popular component in commercial products from the early 1900s to the 1970s. Asbestos is durable, fire retardant, resists corrosion, and insulates very well. Asbestos use in America was most popular from the 1940s until the late 1970s when the health hazards associated with asbestos exposure became widely recognized. By this time asbestos had become an integral component of approximately 3,600 commercial products. During World War II, enormous quantities of asbestos were used in shipbuilding and other industries. Following the war and until the late 1970s, asbestos was widely used in buildings for fireproofing, thermal and acoustical insulation, condensation control, and decoration. It has been estimated that approximately 30 million tons of asbestos have been used in the construction and manufacturing industries since the early 1900s.

What are the Health Effects of Asbestos Exposure?

Asbestos fibers can cause serious health problems. If asbestos fibers are inhaled, the microscopic fibers can cause normal functions of the lungs to be disturbed. Exposure increases the risk of developing lung cancer, mesothelioma, or asbestosis, which is a scaring of the lungs that leads to breathing problems. It could take anywhere from 15 to 30 years after the first exposure for symptoms to occur. Medical investigations have shown that inhalation is the principal route of entry that leads to asbestos-related diseases. There is no known safe exposure level to asbestos. The greater the exposure, the greater the risk of developing an asbestos-related disease.

Asbestos Products Ban and Phase Out

On July 12, 1989, the U.S. EPA issued a final rule banning some, but not all, asbestos-containing products. For additional information, please visit the U.S. EPA: Asbestos page.

Regulations Governing Asbestos

Pursuant to the Clean Air Act of 1970, the U.S. EPA established the Asbestos National Emission Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP). It is intended to minimize the release of asbestos fibers during activities involving the handling of asbestos. It specifies work practices to be followed during renovation, demolition, and other abatement activities when friable asbestos is involved. On March 31, 1971, the U.S. EPA identified asbestos as a hazardous pollutant. On April 6, 1973, the U.S. EPA first enforced the asbestos NESHAP Regulation in Title 40, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 61. On November 20, 1990, the U.S. EPA re-promulgated the entire Asbestos NESHAP regulation to enhance enforcement and compliance, Title 40, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 61, Subpart M, Asbestos. This is the current edition. On June 17, 1994, the U.S. EPA added Appendix A to clarify the Asbestos NESHAP as it affects roof removal operations involving asbestos.

About the Program

The purpose of the Asbestos National Emission Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) Program is to protect public health from exposure to regulated asbestos-containing material (RACM) during NESHAP facility renovation/demolition activities, asbestos removal, transport and disposal, by closely monitoring those activities for proper notification and asbestos emissions control. Asbestos is known to cause cancer and respiratory diseases in humans.

Under Section 112 of the Clean Air Act (CAA), Congress gave the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the responsibility for enforcing regulations relating to asbestos renovations and demolitions activities. The CAA allows the U.S. EPA to delegate this authority to state and local agencies. Even after the U.S. EPA delegates responsibility to a state or local agency, the U.S. EPA retains authority to oversee agency performance and to enforce the Asbestos NESHAP regulations as necessary.

What Sources Are Covered by the Asbestos NESHAP?

Among others, the following activities and facilities are regulated:

• Milling of asbestos
• Commercial manufacturing of products that contain commercial asbestos
• Demolition of all facilities, even though it may not contain asbestos
• Renovation of facilities that contain friable asbestos-containing materials
• Spraying of asbestos-containing materials
• Processing (fabricating) of any manufactured products that contain asbestos
• Use of insulating materials that contain commercial asbestos
• Disposal of asbestos-containing waste generated during milling, manufacturing, renovation, demolition, spraying, and fabricating operations
• Active waste disposal sites
• Closure and maintenance of inactive waste disposal sites
• Operation of and reporting on facilities that convert asbestos-containing waste material into non-asbestos material
• Design and operation of air cleaning devices
• Reporting of information pertaining to process control equipment, filter devices, asbestos generating process, etc.

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Asbestos NESHAP Program and Notification Requirements

Applicability

Any facility undergoing renovation or demolition. “Facility” means any institutional, commercial, public, industrial, or residential structure, installation, or building (including any structure, installation, or building containing condominiums or individual dwelling units operated as a residential cooperative, but excluding residential buildings having four or fewer dwelling units); any ship; and any active or inactive waste disposal site.

Requirements

Prior to beginning renovation or demolition activities of a facility, a certified Asbestos AHERA (Hazard Emergency Response Act) building inspector should thoroughly inspect the facility or part of the facility where the renovation or demolition operation will occur for the presence of asbestos, including friable and non-friable asbestos containing materials.

For all demolitions (even when no asbestos is present) and renovation activities involving threshold amounts of regulated asbestos-containing material (RACM), provide the Asbestos NESHAP agency overseeing the project site with a NESHAP notification at least 10 working days prior to the demolition or renovation activity. Threshold amounts of RACM are:

• 260 linear feet or more on pipes
• 160 square feet or more on other facility components
• 35 cubic feet or more off facility components

Fees

There are no state notification or permitting fees involved with this program for jurisdictional counties. The Region 9 Asbestos Program charges no fees for work on Tribal Lands. Maricopa, Pinal, and Pima counties have fees for their notification process. Some cities may have separate permit fees, and AHERA inspectors may charge a fee for their inspection.

Written Notification Requirement

Under section 61.145(b) of the Asbestos NESHAP, a written notification is required for renovation and demolition operations. Only completed notification forms are accepted. For NESHAP activities for the jurisdictional 12 counties that ADEQ regulates, the notification should be hand or typewritten and postmarked or delivered to ADEQ no later than 10 working days prior to the beginning of the asbestos activity or demolition. The address is:

Arizona Department of Environmental Quality
Air Quality Compliance Section, Field Services Unit
Attn: Asbestos NESHAP Program
1110 West Washington Street
Phoenix, Arizona 85007
(602) 771-2333
(800) 234-5677 – Toll Free (In State)

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Additional Asbestos Resources

• Arizona Asbestos NESHAP Program Regulatory Agency
• Asbestos NESHAP Regulations for Renovation and Demolition Activities
• Catastrophic Emergency Events Involving Asbestos Fact Sheet
• Guide for Building Service Departments and Owners/Operators of NESHAP Facilities

Statutory Citations

Title 40, Code of Federal Regulations, Subpart M, Part 61, Asbestos NESHAP; Arizona Revised Statutes § 49-421 et. Seq. and § 49-471 et. seq.; Arizona Administrative Code R18-2-1101 (A)(8)

Asbestos Related Links

• Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health 
• U.S. EPA Applicability Determination Index Systems 
• U.S. EPA Region 9 Air Quality 
• U.S. EPA: Asbestos 
• OSHA: Asbestos 

“Non-endorsement of proprietary or other ADEQ reviewed products: The listing by ADEQ of any proprietary product or service is not an endorsement by ADEQ or the State of Arizona. ADEQ does not endorse, represent, guarantee, warranty or defend the use of any of the products or services you voluntarily sign up to provide information on, use, or receive. These product and service providers are a direct source unrelated to ADEQ or the State. Use of any listed product or service provider is at your own risk and the State assumes no liability.”

Here are a couple of pages of quick facts that you can print and take along with you!!!

When a pipe breaks, a drain backs up, or a flood occurs in your home, it can be hard to see past the mess. A ton of questions will run through your mind.

What do I do now? What’s going to happen? Is my stuff ruined? Will my homeowner’s insurance cover the damage?

Water damage is extremely stressful, and the more you know about it, the better you’ll be able to decide how to address it. Here are some things that every homeowner needs to know about water damage.

There are different insurance policies for flood damage and water damage.

You might think that water is water, whether it’s from flooding or a broken pipe, but flood damage is not covered under homeowner’s insurance. If you live in an area likely to experience flooding, you will probably already have a separate policy through the National Flood Insurance Policy (NFIP). When you report the claim to the insurance company, make sure to identify whether the claim is for water damage or for flood damage, so they can begin adjusting your claim correctly.

When water damage has happened, time is of the assents.

When your property has been water damaged, you don’t have the luxury of waiting around for an appropriate time to start the cleanup. Secondary damage from mold growth can present serious health risks associated with mold in the living environment. Mold spores are everywhere, but they need moisture and a nutrient source to grow. And that is exactly what your wet carpet or drywall offers. There is a 24 to 48 hour window from the time something gets wet until mold can begin to grow. After that time, mold will multiply rapidly. When mold growth is widespread, you may need the services of a professional mold remediation service to safely treat and remove the mold.

To prevent mold growth, you will need to get your property completely dry again within that 48-hour window. To do this, you’ll need to contact a company that specializes in water damage restoration and emergency water extraction. They will have the professional water removal equipment and drying equipment to get the job done as quickly as possible. Many have 24-hour a day emergency hotlines, so you can start recovering your property almost immediately.

The damage a fire can inflict on any given property is often so severe that dealing with it on your own can prove to be an uphill climb. Then again, you need not face this huge task alone. You don’t even have to do it yourself. The best way of dealing with the aftermath of a fire is to contact a reliable fire restoration company.

Without a doubt, the technicians the fire damage restoration firm will send your way should be able to restore your property to its former state. After all, they have the skills and experience necessary for the job. Aside from their expertise, they also happen to have the right fire restoration equipment and tools. Restoration technicians who used fire tools when doing their job typically get more efficient results.

Among the equipment that these technicians use during the fire restoration process are those that deal with air quality, which tends to be in bad shape after a fire. As soon as they start the fire damage cleanup, fire restoration technicians bring in commercial-grade air movers, air scrubbers, and dehumidifiers to dry out and remove smells from the affected area.

There are also times when they have to resort to using an ultra-low volume or ULV fogger to deodorize a home or business after a fire thoroughly. A ULV fogger is designed to vaporize solvent-based deodorizers, and the smoke it produces reaches tiny crevices of a burned-down home.

In some cases where burned-down areas are flooded by water from the firefighters’ hoses or burst pipes, fire restoration teams also use water pumps to remove all the water from the flooded part of the property.

Since fires produce so much soot, fire restoration technicians typically use shop vacuums to remove most of them from surfaces. When they use such equipment, technicians have to make sure they are rated for this type of job. They also have to be safe for use in wet environments.

For carpets that survived a fire but are completely affected by smoke damage, fire restoration technicians may use a truck mount carpet cleaner, which sprays a carpet with hot water or in some cases, a certain chemical that thoroughly cleans a carpet of all soot and smoke damage.

Fire restoration technicians also have specialized fire damage sponges that are designed to pick up even the finest soot particles stuck in walls and furniture. These sponges are what they use to remove soot from surfaces before they apply their array of special cleaners and chemicals that will clean an area affected by the fire once and for all.

Of course, fire restoration technicians do not go into battle without protective gear. It is standard procedure for them to wear safety helmets, gloves, masks, and boots to any job, regardless of the extent of the fire damage.

Fire restoration is a tough job, but with the help of a wide variety of tools and equipment, the whole process becomes easier for fire restoration technicians.

Seeing your home or business go up in flames is undoubtedly a distressing sight for you. While the most important thing to do in case of a fire is to make sure that everyone is safe, you can’t take away the fact that seeing everything you’ve worked so hard for is now burnt to the ground, and it’s something that will forever be etched in your memory.

When the fire leads to total loss, pretty much the only thing you can do then would be to file an insurance claim so you can rebuild your property from the ground up. However, if the fire only damaged a small part of your home or business, then you can always restore it to the way it was before the fire. How you do it would be entirely up to you, or a contractor you hire to guide you along the way.

Good for you if you decide to take it upon yourself to fix everything with your own hands. That undertaking, however, is going to be an uphill climb. The fire cleanup alone is an enormous task, with your house potentially flooded from all the water from the firefighters’ hoses. Then there’s the whole process of removing everything that was damaged by the fire. And how do you plan to deal with all the soot and the smoke damage?

Taking the DIY path means there is a lot to deal with in the aftermath of a fire. To ensure that your property is fully restored to its former glory, you need to hire fire restoration services to help you out.

The benefits of hiring fire damage restoration services

When fire damage restoration specialists are at work, the entire process becomes speedier and more thorough. It’s easy for DIY fire cleanup homeowners to miss something that restoration professionals won’t. It could be leaving residue behind or doing the cleaning all wrong.

With fire damage restoration services handling the cleanup, you can be sure that all safety hazards will be removed entirely from the house. The same goes for the water that is flooding your house, along with the excess moisture that comes with it. Everything that they do is geared towards mitigating the damage to make the restoration process easier.

Smoke damage is one of the lingering effects of a fire. Getting rid of it can be tough, especially when we don’t have the specialized knowledge or the specific tools and materials needed for the job. Fire damage restoration professionals are trained, skilled, experienced, and properly equipped to deal with smoke damage to improve air quality, reduce allergies, and make your house safe to live in again.

Once fire cleanup is completed, the professional fire restoration crew will proceed with repairing every piece of the home, with the goal of restoring the home to its original state.

When a fire, big or small, hits your home or business, always call a fire restoration specialist. They’re your only real chance of regaining the home you once had before disaster struck.