Buffet, Do you know what the typical result is when sampling the woven arc shields from re-wireable fuseboards is? Do they always contain crystotile? or only sometimes? are the other types ever seen in them?
If you are talking the white in colour woven 'flash pads' that sit on the fuse carrier and inside the fuse carrier plug they are normally Chrysotile (white) asbestos in very high content (almost pure).
If you are talking the rope seals around the fuse box case cover door, they are often also woven white asbestos in rope form, however many have been replaced with MMMF (fibreglass) alternatives over the years, and any good asbestos surveyer will tell the difference immediately.
However, I have never seen flash pads replaced with alternatives. They are either used in the electrics or not, and as far as I know were not replaced with a non-asbestos alternative. Often, though, electricians have just pulled the flash pads out and discarded them, but this can leave remnants of the material on the components still in use. This should be fairly visible with the naked eye, but not always.
Inside a lot of older electrics you also get asbestos cement components, or bakelite. Cement predominantly contains white asbestos, but it can actually contain white, brown and blue depending on the manufacturer. Asbestos Bakelight usually contains white and brown.
In some electrics, there can be a piece of mill board material inserted behind the entire fuse plug enclosure and this can contain blue asbestos. I have personally only seen this a couple of times though, but to be fair, a lot of the electics on any given site cannot usually be inspected so it may be more prevalent than my findings suggest.
Also, with electrics, the panel that consumer units/meters/fuse boxes are fixed to is often timber, but sometimes asbestos (usually cement).
Hope this helps.
