Crocidolite asbestos (CAS 12001-28-4): storage and disposal
Crocidolite is blue asbestos, the most dangerous form, and it survives in legacy teaching samples in schools, colleges and universities. It may cause cancer and causes organ damage through repeated exposure, with harm coming from breathing the fibres. A single old specimen in a mineral collection is enough to bring in the asbestos rules. The first step is always the same: leave it undisturbed and tell the duty holder.
- CAS number
- 12001-28-4
- 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
Breathing the fibres is the hazard that decides where crocidolite goes, which in practice means it stays exactly where you found it. Being the most dangerous form, it gives you no reason to rehouse a specimen, even if the box looks shabby or sits in the wrong collection. Keep the cupboard closed and keep students and clearing staff out of that part of the store, with a plain warning that does not require you to touch the sample. Let the person responsible for asbestos at the site know straight away, so the location goes on their record. Do not dust the shelf, lift the box to read its base or take it elsewhere to photograph it.
How to tell it has deteriorated
Look at the specimen box from where you stand. A collapsed lid, a yellowed label with an old mineral name on it or a sample tube with a perished stopper all suggest it has sat unchecked for decades. The label may also use a mineral or trade name that means little today, so an unfamiliar word on an old fibrous sample should be enough to stop you. The fibres themselves are classically a blue to lavender grey, straight and fine, and the rock can look layered. They do not change chemically with time, but a brittle sample or a damaged box lets them loosen. Fibres in the air are invisible. If any looks damaged, leave and keep others out.
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.
Record what you can without touching it: the room, the cupboard, the wording on the box or tube, whether the container is intact and who has used the collection recently. Give that to the person responsible for asbestos at your site, since licensed or notified specialists do this work under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. A chemical collection never covers it, and it is not quoted online. If you cannot find out who is responsible, send a manual enquiry and a store assessment is recommended, though the specialist still has to come through the asbestos route. Do not open the container, and do not move it to a bench or collection point for someone to look at.
| 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
How urgent is it if we find a blue asbestos sample in a mineral set?
Report it the same day to the person responsible for asbestos at your site. It is the most dangerous form, but rushing to remove it is the wrong response. Close the cupboard, keep people away from it and let the duty holder arrange a specialist.
The old label on our specimen does not say asbestos. Could it still be crocidolite?
It could. Old collections used mineral names, trade names or just a catalogue number, and the colour alone does not settle it. Treat a fibrous specimen with suspicion, leave it alone and report it. Identification is work for a competent surveyor, without anyone at school taking a fragment to test.
Colleagues have handled this sample in past lessons. Should we record that?
Yes. Note who may have handled it and roughly when, and pass that to the duty holder and your employer's occupational health contact. Do not try to clean the area yourself. Records of possible past contact may matter later, and they are far harder to rebuild after the sample has gone.
