Posted By Alan Kirkwood A friend of mine has just been diagnosed as having mesothelioma. He has worked for the one employer for 40 years being a factory involved in the manufacture of carpets. This type of activity is not one which I normally associate with exposure to asbestos. Does anyone know anything different? were asbestos fibres woven into carpets in the past? Any information or comments would be most appreciated. Thank you in anticipation. Alan Kirkwood.

Posted By Ken Taylor The nearest of which I have heard are carpet underlays and vinyl floor tiles. However asbestos could have been present elsewhere including machine gaskets, pipe insulation, etc, etc. It has been said that short intense exposure can result in Mesothelioma in addition to prolonged association. Additionally, cases have been reported of family members contracting the disease from asbestos brought home by others. Upon visiting a few carpet manufacturing establishments in the past, I have been particularly aware of the presence of visible fibres within workers breathing zones and considerable build-up on shelves and other flat surfaces. One wonders as to what extent abrasion of the respiratory tracts could be an issue in, perhaps providing ingress routes for other substances. I hope someone with experience of the industry will be able to enlighten us further in this respect.

Posted By Forum admin Alan should you wish to speak further re the above, pls contact me on tel 01625 876469 (h) or 07780 705199 Lawrence Bamber

I am unsure about the 'cheaper end' of the carpet market and the backing used in the distant past. However I did work for some years for a 'luxury' carpet manufacturer in Kidderminster for many years (early 80's to mid 90's) - latex was used a backing and binding agent with the other materials being jute, wool, nylon, cotton and some form of polypropylene. There used to be lots of 'fibres' (I cant remember the term we used) that were produced when the yarns were cut (wool nylon mix) which were generally extracted at source but did need human intervention to change the waste bags etc. As an aside my grandfather worked in the carpet industry for his whole life and died following lung complaint (too young to remember what) which was probably compounded by chain smoking Players I can remember the smoke filled living room :-(