Fibre Glass insulation and Tank Water
How anticon blanket can let dangerous fibre glass particles get into your drinking water tank.
Would you put this insulation in a glass of water and drink it ? That might be just what you are doing without knowing it if your home uses tank water collected from the roof.
I often insulate houses that have existing fibre glass batts that did not work or were just not installed well. In this time many of the houses that I inspect actually have parts of the fibreglass batts still sitting on the roof, all matted down and stuck in the guttering, where the original installers did not clean the roof properly after installing the insulation batts. Now this may not be a problem if you have town water but if you use tank water or collect water from your roof for drinking it could be a serious health risk.
Imagine drinking glass particles that even when in contact with your skin make you itchy for days ? this is what you may be doing to your health if you install Fibre Glass insulation batts in your home (Earthwool, CSR, Pink Batts, Gold Batts They come in many names but they are all the same and not made to be ingested)
My biggest concern is that I have seen this anticon blanket siting in the guttering a 1000 times and for the Rual area Fire Abatement Regulations, that is exactly where it is supposed to be installed. If you look and fibreglass batts closely, it has millions of fine glass particles that just come loose when you shake a bat and so I would be worried about drinking water that comes off a roof with any fibre glass insulation in it.
Watch the video below to see exactly how they end up in the water collection gutters of your home. In fact the Australian building code requires them to be installed this way for fire abatement in bush areas but obviously it is these bush areas that normally do not have access to town water.
If you live in a bush area and collect drinking water from your roof, Make sure you do not have Anticon Blanket under your iron TODAY or get a water filter that can filter the glass particles out.
Ask yourself, After watching this video do you think their might be Glass fibres from your insulation in your drinking water?
Bio Soluble Fibre glass Insulation batts and its health risks for your family?
I am not a doctor and so I only have antidotal information about insulation batts effecting Human health but I can give you this information and let you make up your own mind.
Firstly I had one worker (Andrew) years ago that every time we did a insulation batt job he would come up in a very angry red rash on any exposed skin that came into contact with the batts. He actually only had to touch the batts to his skin once and he would get a rash. Now just about everyone I know in the years who works with insulation batts Calls them "itchy wool" because it is well known that they make you itchy. However everyone is different and so some people get more itchy than others. There is a whole range and obviously andrew had it bad, so much so that in the end he would only work with me on Cellulose fibre insulation jobs because cellulose does not make you itchy.
I have meet two builder over the years one that just did the batt installation himself and one that did Anticon blanket, both of these builder told me that they were coughing up blood in the morning and that doctors told them that it was related to the fibreglass batt fibres. Now their is no evidence that I know of but it is interesting that even the manufacturers used to put cancer warnings on their roof insulation batt packs a long time ago.
Another thing that is not thought about is that my wife banned me from washing my uniforms with any other cloths after doing a Fibre glass batt insulation removal. The reason was that she noticed the kids scratching their skin after washing my uniforms with the kids cloths and she thought it was related to the particles of glass contaminating the kids clothing. Now kids have sensitive skin and it may have been true but in either case it was a simple thing for us to not wash my cloths at the same time any more.
There is lots of articles on the internet saying it is harmless but there are also lots of well searched stories about people who have seemingly indefensible stories of how insulation batts caused their own death from cancer.
I also don't understand how any products being made from Glass could be considered bio soluble, put it in the comments if you know but as far as I know glass or sand is not soluble at all. That is why Oysters form pearls and why fake Eyes used to be made of glass. My only other comment here is that when there is far better insulations on the market why would you risk putting your families health at risk for the sake of a few dollars saved on roof insulation. Just install Cellulose Fibre insulation in your roof and you do not need to worry about health risks.