Just before the Second World War asbestos really only found its way into New Zealand in the form of manufactured items. Since that time, the only asbestos containing products that have been manufactured in any quantity in this country were asbestos cement building material, such as roofing and wall claddings, pipes and other moulded products.
Depending on the item being manufactured, they were made of a mixture of Portland cement, sand and usually between 5 and 15 percent of either chrysotile, amosite or crocidolite --- the asbestos acting as reinforcing because of it's fibrous nature and its high tensile strength.
The bulk was the white variety, chrysotile, which was cheaper and more easily worked.  Because the “best” blue crocidolite from South Africa was more expensive it tended to be used in only products requiring greater heat tolerance or strength (such as in pipes expected to contain higher pressures or temperatures).

A lesser quality of crocidolite from the Wittenoom mine in Western Australia was also used to some extent.
Amosite, or brown asbestos was imported from Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).
Another major use of asbestos was as the raw material for insulation and acoustic products.

This saw the various types of asbestos mixed with a binder and spayed around boilers, pipes, ducts and other places where insulation against heat and noise was needed.
From the 1950’s until the 1970’s thousands of tonnes of asbestos were applied in this way, most notably in the power stations built in the period, but also in railway workshops, shipbuilding and maintenance and other large scale industrial applications.

Sprayed asbestos was also extensively used as a fire retardant for protecting structural steelwork. Usually the insulation was applied by contractors who mixed asbestos from the bags or sacks it had been imported in, before spraying the mixture on to chicken wire reinforcing.

Other work places where asbestos was used included railway workshops, boiler rooms, and in fact most of the countries major industrial complexes where insulation against heat was required.

Some of the industrial applications were less obvious. For example, asbestos was commonly used in the brewing industry to filter beer from the 1920’s to the early 1970’s, and it was dropped into wine to act as finings and clarify the finished product.
Another unusual use for blue asbestos was as a filtering component in gas masks of British Manufacture that were standard issue for troops and others from the First World War until after the Second World War.
An inner core of asbestos was surrounded by woollen wadding, and the item was standard issue to all New Zealand Troops in danger of gas attack

Before the Second World War, asbestos was not imported in its raw state in sufficient quantity to appear in the import statistics. With the beginning of local manufacturing and an increase in post war construction, more than 2000 tonnes were being imported annually by the late 1940’s. This continued though out the 1950’s with peaks of up to 5000 tonnes in some years. Usage increased dramatically during the 1960’s and until well into the 1970’s with the 5000 tonnes being a minimum amount being imported during those years, and the average being closer to 8000 tonnes.
Imported asbestos peaked in 1975 at 12,500 tonnes though as recently as 1983, 3000 tonnes were imported. Through out the 40 years asbestos was imported in large quantities, about two thirds of the amount imported was chrysotile from Canada, with the balance being made up of different types from Australia, South Africa or, to a lesser extent, the United States.
Asbestos was only ever mined in small quantities in New Zealand, as chrysotile from a single mine near Takaka from the early 1950’s until early 1960’s. It was of low quality and had to be mixed with imported material.
In the late 1960’s a sizable deposit was found near Dusky Sound, but for various reasons these were never exploited. Since 1984 the importing of Blue and Brown asbestos has been banned
(in its raw state?).

Permission for the above information was kindly allowed by

Capital Environmental Services (2005)Ltd

Friable asbestos is the type which is capable of being crumbled into fine particles by hand pressure. Unless these fibres are completely encapsulated, they tend to break down into a fine dust.
If you magnify a single fibre 1,000 times it looks only slightly larger than a human hair.
Because of their size and shape, these fibres can remain in the air for long periods of time, and can therefore be inhaled.

They can then easily penetrate the tissues of the body and then remain there for many years.
A number of these fibres will be coughed up because they are irritating, but many of them will pass down the small airways and alveoli (air sacs).

Fibres that remain in the body are potential disease-causing agents.
Because of certain processes that occur in the body, the development of various asbestos related diseases may occur

Once these fibres are in the body they can move around. This is probably because they are small and sharp. They can go from the lungs into the pleura and into the lymph nodes.

When these fibres are in your mucous and sputum they can also be swallowed.
Some of these may then stick to the intestines and then also move into the peritoneum. (the lining of the abdomen).

  Deadly building materials still coming into NZ -

 report NZPA | Tuesday July 1 2008 - 02:48pm

Building products with asbestos in them are putting builders at deadly risk,
a new report commissioned by the Department of Labour says.
The report, obtained by NZPA under the Official Information Act, says many builders would not know asbestos if they saw it.
And while local manufacturing of those products ceased in the late 1980s, builders might also be at risk of imported goods from countries where there is no such ban. New Zealand has a ban on importing raw asbestos but no ban on importing asbestos in goods as long as they are labelled, and no testing for them at ports.
The report's author is former national operations manager for Occupational Safety and Health, Mike Cosman.

Now a consultant, Mr Cosman said he knew of several unlabelled imported products in recent months that had tested positive for asbestos.
They included roofing materials, flooring and even tape.
But he said there was no way of knowing how much was coming into the country at the moment.
Much of it is from southeast Asia, where there are no constraints on manufacturing with asbestos.

"There is little rationale for not introducing a ban as safer alternatives are available for the vast majority of uses."
New Zealand factories stopped making building products containing asbestos in the mid-1980s after the fibre became clearly linked with respiratory illnesses and cancer.
Asbestos is deemed safe if intact. But builders and home renovators are still vulnerable to exposure if they unknowingly disturb old housing materials with asbestos in them.
Mr Cosman's report also found low awareness of asbestos in the construction industry.

"The older workers tended to think asbestos was yesterday's problem, that it had all been sorted in the 80s, and younger workers, of which there were an increasingly number in the industry, know nothing about it."The Department of Labour said it was carrying out a wider review of asbestos handling in the workplace, which might include a ban on imported asbestos products.
In late April, a cancer researcher said he believed one in 10 Australian carpenters born before 1950 would die of a fatal asbestos-linked cancer, mesothelioma.

Professor Julian Peto said the use of brown asbestos or amosite, and blue asbestos or crocidolite, in building products in Australia and Britain until the 1980s had been completely uncontrolled.
"Carpenters would chop it up with power saws without much concern at all."
The Australian Council of Trade Unions has called for a national inquiry to examine ways of eliminating asbestos from workplaces and homes .

 

ASBESTOS EXPOSURE MAY OCCUR FROM THE FOLLOWING

22) Labourers in any of the above employments

PRODUCTS CONTAINING ASBESTOS

More than 5000 products contain or have contained
asbestos, some of which are listed below

Asbestos cement sheeting and pipe products used
for water supply and sewage piping, roofing
and siding casings for electrical switchboards
and components, and residential and industrial
friction materials.

Friction products, such as clutch facings;
brake linings for automobiles, railroad cars,
and aeroplanes; friction materials.

Products containing asbestos paper, such as
table pads and heat-protective mats,
heat and electrical wire insulation,
industrial filters for beverages, small appliance
components, and underlying material for sheet flooring.

Asbestos textile products, such as components,
roofing materials, heat and fire resistant clothing
and fireproof draperies.

Other products, including ceiling and floor tiling;
Gaskets and packings; paints, coatings and sealants;
caulking and patching tape; and plastic.

It has been used in a stipling compound that has been used on the ceilings of 10,000s of N,Z homes.
"Thermal system insulation" sprayed or trowelled on "surfacing material"
and vinyl or asphalt flooring is particularly likely to contain asbestos.

Asbestos corrugated roofing.
Asbestos rope
Feroda strips (which were cut and drilled for rolling stock, brake riggings)at the railroad work shops.