Setting up a workshop in the basement: Health concerns?

Hello everyone.

I plan to set up a workshop in a basement room. Since the building structure is old, I have some health-related questions. The house where the basement is located is about 150 years old and is in Switzerland, so it is quite possible that asbestos was used. In addition, the basement walls are masonry and the house is in an area where radon gas may be present.

[*]Therefore, my first question would be what should be considered during such a renovation? I am thinking about installing a radon sensor and possibly having an asbestos dust sample taken?

What I have already noticed is that the heating pipes have open insulation. The heating system was renewed in 2016, but I am not sure what the materials are:



I assume that one of the materials is fiberglass, but I am not sure about the gray material.

[*]My second question would therefore be what materials these are (and whether they are hazardous), and how to deal with them? I would probably have just covered it with wood.

If more pictures are needed, I can gladly post more.

Thanks in advance!

The insulation of the heating pipes looks like it's from around 1970-1980. We had something similar. Presumably, under the gray rather thick plastic sheath is nasty itchy glass wool. The other insulations are probably, in my opinion, not harmful to health either. But certainty can only be gained by a professional / analysis of a sample.

But you don't suspect asbestos installed from 150 years ago, but rather as part of a renovation - right? As far as I know, asbestos is largely harmless as long as it is not cut or shaken, because no dust is released. Renovate the workshop nicely with drywall (seal everything dust-tight) - done.

Unfortunately, I cannot answer the aspect of radon, but I seem to recall that every long-distance flight also exposes people to quite high radioactivity. That's why flights are not reduced. Besides, hopefully you won't be living in the future workshop. Measure radon levels once, obtain limit values, calculate how long you can stay there safely. Topic done :cool: