Building insulation materials weak and brittle. Before its risks were recognized, it was used because it was a cheap, effective insulator with a high R-value and its open-cell structure was a good acoustic insulator. Though it absorbed moisture easily, it regained effectiveness as an insulator when dried. Asbestos once found common use as an insulation material in homes and buildings because it is fireproof, a good thermal and electrical insulator, and resistant to chemical attack and wear. It has been found that asbestos can cause cancer when in friable form (that is, when likely to release fibers into the air - when broken,
Pipe insulation industrial pipework operating at higher temperatures. Glass wool is a high-temperature fibrous insulation material, similar to mineral wool, where inorganic strands of glass fibre are bound together using a binder. As with other forms of mineral wool, glass-wool insulation can be used for thermal and acoustic applications. These are flexible, closed-cell, rubber foams based on NBR or EPDM rubber. Flexible elastomeric foams exhibit such a high resistance to the passage of water vapour that they do not generally require additional water-vapour barriers. Such high vapour resistance, combined with the high surface emissivity of rubber, allows flexible elastomeric foams to prevent