If you have ever worked in the construction industry or if you know someone who works or has worked in the construction industry, you may have heard about the deadly mineral known as asbestos. Asbestos is an extremely dangerous mineral, but what exactly is it? We know the deadly diseases and cancers that it can cause, but what does it look like? Well, in this article, we’re going to go into specific detail of what exactly asbestos looks like and what it can be found used in. Read on in this article if you would like to know all things about asbestos and how it appears.

Just a simple Google search will show you what asbestos looks like, but for people who may have difficulty seeing properly or need to hear it straight from this article, we will go into detail of how each asbestos image appears. 

One of the most intriguing images of asbestos that pops up when you search its infamous name is a very close up image of the deadly mineral. It looks almost like a bunch of barbed wire. This barbing effect that you can see is actually the tiny little microscopic fibers of the asbestos mineral. The image states that it has been magnified a great amount, which has allowed us to see the tiny barbs and fibers of the asbestos mineral. Due to the nature of magnification, we don’t actually get to see the color of the fibers in the asbestos image. 

In another image of asbestos that pops up, you can see a large chunk of the asbestos mineral. It appears to be attached to some sort of rock or other base. It is freshly mined asbestos that has not been ground into a powder or anything at all, allowing us to see the natural way that asbestos appears in the outside world. The mineral is white in color, with what appears to be strands that flow down the rock base it is attached to. This is most likely due to its fibrous nature. The appearance of the asbestos in this image is similar to the appearance of a mango after you have eaten all of the mango chunks off of it and are left with the attached hairy pit. Although it doesn’t look exactly the same, the similarity of the two are honestly striking. The mango, however, tends to have a pale creamy colored coating of short hairs, whereas the asbestos seems to have a very bright white appearance with long strands flowing downwards. There is also a grey cast on the shadows, which really makes the brilliant white color of the asbestos stand out. 

Another image that stands out when you search for asbestos is a picture of a slice of asbestos that has been cut in half. This cut of the asbestos really helps visualize the makeup of the mineral. It almost looks like little sheets of glass that have been layered on top of each other. These sheets are paper thin. Although it isn’t actually sheets of glass, it really does look like it could be. The dangers of asbestos fibers are also similar to the dangers of glass fibers. You wouldn’t want to get asbestos fibers stuck in your lungs, and you also do not want glass fibers to be stuck in your lungs. That would be really painful and not fun at all. 

The last asbestos picture that we will be talking about is actually a very strange looking picture, but is probably the most useful out of all of them. The asbestos in this picture has taken another one of its many forms, instead of appearing as a chunk of glass sheets or like a hairy mango pit, the asbestos appears to look like a clump of old dust. When I say old dust, I truly mean old dust. It has the appearance of a three inch thick layer of dust. Even though it looks so odd and gross, you can still make out how it would look like asbestos. Amongst the clumpy dust appearance, there are little shiny bits that give off the true nature of the mineral. Although it may look like dust, you can still see the shining bits of mineral in it.

Hopefully after reading this article you know a lot more about how asbestos looks!