Blown-in Insulation

Fiberglass Awareness

Page 1

A Ziploc bag of gray cotton looking material being held in the air outside in a driveway with a hand that has red painted fingernails. There is a blue Toyota FJ cruiser sitting next to a white cargo trailer in the background.

Our attic has three rooms that you can stand in and we use it as storage. This is what is between our attic floor and the second floor ceiling. We sent a sample away to a lab to see if it is asbestos. Whatever it is it makes my throat hurt, chest ache, eyes burn and skin numb.

The Lab Results

The lab results came back. The gray fibrous material is 97% glass wool. Glass wool is another name for fiberglass. The report said the non-fibrous materials are "organics". There was no asbestos detected.

A screen shot of the lab results showing the attic floor has gray fibrous glass wool with no asbestiform.

The question is, can the blown in fiberglass insulation between the ceiling and the floor get into the air?

A Ziploc bag of gray cotton looking material with little black specs of dirt in it.
A white ceiling vent taped over with clear packing tape with gray fiberglass dust sticking to the sticky side.

We have a separate HVAC system that feeds the attic and second floor. I covered up all of the second floor vents and returns with clear packing tape. About a week later I noticed something I had not expected.

Close up - a white ceiling vent taped over with clear packing tape with gray fiberglass dust sticking to the sticky side.

The insulation dust was all over the sticky side of the tape. I had felt the insulation in the air, but I didn't think it would build up that much.

A beige ceiling vent taped over with clear packing tape with gray fiberglass dust sticking to the sticky side.

Some of the vents had more on them than others. To actually see the finest of the small glass particles they say you need a microscope that magnifies 2000 times along with placing the scope on a special setting. Hence why the smallest and most dangerous of the particles are rarely ever detected. Most of the time it is never even looked for. This time however, I could actually see the stuff. No wonder it felt so potent.

Close up - a beige ceiling vent taped over with clear packing tape with gray fiberglass dust sticking to the sticky side.

This would have been the dust I would have been dusting off of the furniture. I often wondered where house dust came from. Mixed in with the dead skin cells and dog dander, it comes from between the floors and walls.

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