Friable and Non-Friable Asbestos
There are two major types of asbestos materials, defined according to the ease of reducing the materials down to basic fibers. The first type of material is known as friable asbestos. Like chalk or clay, these pieces of asbestos cannot withstand much force at all before falling apart. On the other hand, non-friable asbestos, occasionally referred to as encapsulated asbestos, requires a significant amount of damage to the material to prove dangerous. Friable asbestos proves such a major threat due to its ability to release massive amounts of asbestos fibers into the air when breaking apart. These fibers can enter into the lungs when a person breathes them in, as they can linger in the air like dust or smoke. As a consequence of breathing in these fibers, the damage to the lungs can grow over time to a highly lethal form of cancer known as mesothelioma. Although many forms of reducible asbestos have been removed from buildings as a major safety precaution, asbestos r