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rest assured there is vermiculite that is safe

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Report below for members concerned about the safety of vermiculite.   Rest
assured Hoban vermiculite is safe.
Subject: vermiculite and asbestos
Anne

From Hoban International
Sandra Lawton has passed your email to me regarding vermiculite and
asbestos.

Some vermiculite sources do contain asbestos, however our vermiculite is
sourced from Mandoval Limited, who are the European distributor of crude
(unexfoliated vermiculite), produced by the Palabora Mining Company from
opencast mines in South Africa.

In 1996, Mandoval commissioned a report by the Institute of Occupational
Medicine (IOM) to identifty if any hazardous asbestos fibres were present in
their vermiculite.

Quoting their comments:

'No amphibole or chrysotile asbestos fibres were found in the bulk
vermiculite samples of any of the vermiculite grades by polorised light
microscopy. The detection usually quoted for this method is around 1ppm by
mass (HSE,1994).

Therefore, all of the vermiculite materials tested comply with the proposed
0.1% European packaging and labelling of carcinogen requirements and the
0.1% trigger value for labelling of hazardous materials in the US.

The levels are also lower than the 0.001% for asbestos in loose aggregates
proposed by Addison et al (1998) based on work at IOM using asbestos and
soil mixtures. Therefore, it is concluded that these materials, or products
containing them, do not present an asbestos-related health hazard when used
in an occupational environment.'


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