Asbestos heat shields in the first Trans Oceanic's and other early radios
 

I posted this as a reply to a thread but it's important enough to have it's own thread and maybe should be a sticky.

Be careful there is an asbestos heat shield in the first Trans Oceanic's. I use a respirator and soak the heat shield in polyurethane to encase the asbestos the remove and discard it. Other early radios also have asbestos in them be.

The health problems from asbestos came from people who were covered in it all day at work for years, and family members who dealt with their clothing and the asbestos fibers associated with them. A few small sheets of the stuff in an old radio won't hurt much of anything as long as you don't grind it up and snort it.

To me it's just not worth the risk. If radios are a hobby and you deal with a lot of early ones and have them in your house prudent precautions are the sensible thing to do for now and for those who will own your radios in the future. You won't have them forever.

as with all things..common sense should prevail...if the asbestos is in a solid form,it's pretty safe,maybe not something you wanna needlessly play around with,but it's not nuclear waste dangerous..it's the airborne dust and fibers that once inhaled cause problems and that you should beware of...if the stuff is fibrous,flaky or easily broken,or likely will be in it's removal or handling,you should probably use some precautions and dispose of it responsibly...but in a solid form as most would be for use in a radio...it's really a pretty low level risk