Amosite asbestos (CAS 12172-73-5): storage and disposal
Amosite is brown asbestos, found today in legacy teaching samples held by schools, colleges and universities. It may cause cancer and causes organ damage through repeated exposure, and the harm comes from breathing the fibres. Samples often sit forgotten in mineral drawers, where the name can mean nothing to a newer technician. The person responsible for asbestos at the site decides the next steps, with specialists doing any handling.
- CAS number
- 12172-73-5
- Form
- Solid
- Storage class
- Toxic
- Signal word
- Danger
Serious health hazard
This chemical is a manual enquiry
This contains asbestos. Asbestos has its own handling and licensing rules, so it needs a specialist route.
Asbestos: regulated separately, never a chemical collection.
It cannot be priced through a form. Please do not open or move it. Call us or send an enquiry and we will talk through the safe next step, which is often a store assessment.
What to do this week
- Leave it where it is. If it looks old, crystalline or damaged, do not open or move it and keep people away from the shelf.
- Write down the label wording, the rough age and where it is stored, from a safe distance.
- Send us those details, and a photo if you can take one without touching it.
Safe storage in a school or lab
Loose fibres in the air are the hazard that governs amosite, so the storage advice is short: do not disturb it. A brown fibrous sample should stay in its tray or tube with the drawer closed. Fibres in this type are straight and brittle, and they can break away as fine needles when a piece is rubbed or dropped, which makes a sliding drawer a poor place to keep opening. Avoid pulling that drawer out to reach other specimens until the sample has been dealt with. Put a plain warning on the unit and tell the person responsible for asbestos at the site. Do not rehouse it in a new box, tape the lid or carry the tray to a bench.
How to tell it has deteriorated
A brownish grey, fibrous lump in a mineral drawer is what you would see first, perhaps with a paper label naming it as amosite or by an old trade name. Some samples are simply unlabelled. Check by eye only: splinters lying in the tray, a broken tube, a label that has come loose or a dusty patch beneath the sample all suggest it has been shedding. The mineral itself does not decay and has no chemical signs of ageing, so wear is the only change you will see. A sample that looks firm can still release fibres if it is handled. If there is loose debris, close the drawer gently, leave it closed and report it. Do not brush anything up.
How it must be disposed of
This does not go through our standard collection route. It is arranged by manual enquiry, and never goes down the drain or into general waste.
Do not wrap, bag or post a sample, take it to a local tip or add it to a chemical clear out. It must never go into a skip or a general waste bin. Amosite falls under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 and is handled by licensed or notified specialists, so the person responsible for asbestos at your site should commission the work. It is not quoted online, and a chemical collection will not take it. When a school or college cannot identify who holds that role, a manual enquiry is a sensible next step and a store assessment is recommended. Say which drawer holds it and whether there is any loose debris, then leave it undisturbed.
| Hazardous waste | Yes |
|---|
No List of Waste code is given here. The waste is outside the chemical collection stream and is assessed by manual enquiry.
The code depends on where the waste came from and what it is mixed with. Use the waste code finder to see why.
Common quantities we collect
Usually held as: teaching samples.
Part-used bottles and full containers are both fine. Tell us the size and how many, and an estimate is enough for a first price.
Where it is commonly held
Hazard statements
- H350 May cause cancer.
- H372 Causes damage to organs through prolonged or repeated exposure.
Substance as classified, dilutions may differ.
Questions
We need the rest of the mineral drawer for teaching. Can we lift the amosite out?
No. Lifting it out is the handling you need to avoid, and the debris may already sit among the other specimens. Stop using the drawer, warn people off and tell the duty holder. A specialist can advise on whether the neighbouring samples are affected and can be used again.
Would a local tip accept a small amosite sample if we double wrapped it?
Do not try it. Wrapping a sample means handling it, and asbestos has its own legal route with licensed or notified specialists. Your site's asbestos lead can arrange what is required. Even a very small sample deserves that route, however tempting a quick trip to a tip may seem.
The sample has been in that drawer for decades without trouble. Why act now?
Because the risk comes when someone disturbs it, and a new technician who does not know the name may do exactly that. Fibres in the air give no visible warning. Reporting it now puts a record in place, so that a future clear out does not become an exposure.
