# Info. on old NM cable



## MountainMan83 (May 6, 2020)

Here is a picture of the sheathing.


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## MountainMan83 (May 6, 2020)

I guess I don’t know how to upload an image on here XD


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## Wirenuting (Sep 12, 2010)

Welcome to ET
Please take the time to finish filling out your profile


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## Dennis Alwon (May 9, 2009)

I never heard that nm cable contained asbestos. Besides that if the wiring is in the walls and not be messed with then the asbestos is not an issue....


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## Wirenuting (Sep 12, 2010)

Dennis Alwon said:


> I never heard that nm cable contained asbestos. Besides that if the wiring is in the walls and not be messed with then the asbestos is not an issue....


A couple years ago I posted pics of 1910 era NM, 2 wire made by triangle that was asbestos in the cloth wrapping. It came out of an old hospital I was remodeling. The individual conductors were rubber coated. What was in the old gas line buried in the concrete was in good shape. At the openings it was toast. 

It tasted great with mustard. :wink:


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## Dennis Alwon (May 9, 2009)

Didn't know about the asbestos but if left undisturbed it shouldn't be an issue


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## varmit (Apr 19, 2009)

The fabric covered "Romex" with plastic insulated conductors would probably be from the 50s until the middle 60s. The fabric covered cable, with a fabric wrap over rubber insulation, goes back to about the 40s. The original cables were composed of tar like impregnated cloth conductors with a fabric cowering. These very old cables were really large for the conductor size. A 12-2 would be near the size of your thumb.

The insulation on these oldest cables tends to fall apart if the conductors are moved much.

Any of these older cables may have some asbestus content. Single conductor asbestus wire was common for high temperature applications. I have used it many times.


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## CoolWill (Jan 5, 2019)

In one instance of messing with it, I wouldn't be too concerned with asbestos. If you're fooling around with it every day, well that's different.


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## 99cents (Aug 20, 2012)

This is interesting. I had a customer who wanted cable removed because she thought it contained asbestos. I thought she was nuts. I ended up walking off the job (big reason being she said she was looking for a new boyfriend and that’s not the type of currency I use).

Anyway, I came across this.


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## splatz (May 23, 2015)

CoolWill said:


> In one instance of messing with it, I wouldn't be too concerned with asbestos. If you're fooling around with it every day, well that's different.


People are far too worried about incidental minor exposure to asbestos. It's hard to find hard numbers but it's something like smoking. Smoking two packs a day for 20 years, huge increase in risk of lung cancer. Buy a pack of cigarettes, smoke four and throw them out, no measurable increase in lung cancer risk. 

If you have a single occasion to work on some old cables that might contain some asbestos, wear a respirator, don't breathe the dust, and go on with your life.


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## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

splatz said:


> People are far too worried about incidental minor exposure to asbestos. It's hard to find hard numbers but it's something like smoking. Smoking two packs a day for 20 years, huge increase in risk of lung cancer. Buy a pack of cigarettes, smoke four and throw them out, no measurable increase in lung cancer risk.
> 
> If you have a single occasion to work on some old cables that might contain some asbestos, wear a respirator, don't breathe the dust, and go on with your life.


All the above is null and void once you arrive across the border to Califonia.

Over there, everything you touch see smell and taste can kill you according to the Surgeon General.


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## Max C. (Sep 29, 2016)

99cents said:


> I ended up walking off the job (big reason being she said she was looking for a new boyfriend and that’s not the type of currency I use).


Wow, talk about a Jerry Springer moment...


splatz said:


> People are far too worried about incidental minor exposure to asbestos.


A while ago, I took a free course which dealt with safe handling procedures for asbestos. The lady teaching told everybody in no uncertain terms that even a single particle has the potential eventually cause lung-cancer. I guess if that's the case, 98% of the planet is in danger.


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## Willie B (Jan 31, 2020)

I don't know about any asbestos content. Many asbestos containing products are saturated in rubber, or other compounds rendering the asbestos "non friable" meaning the fibers aren't easily airborne.

Here, the progression was knob & tube through the 1920s, BX began to reign in mid twenties, but production ended in the steel shortage of the late 1930s when it was being used up by the European war effort. Late thirties to early 1950s was the era of the heavy black tar insulated "ROMEX". I know little, but believe the outer insulation to be cotton impregnated with a mix of asphalt & rubber. A paper layer was common, then inner insulation of cotton, linen, impregnated with rubber. 

The finer stuff with less volume in the outer insulation, usually thermoplastic inner insulation, the first I have seen labeled NM came on the scene early 1950s. I haven't seen a #16 ground conductor earlier than 1958. Somewhere in late 1950s outer jacket went plastic. "NEW CODE" NM was 1969? full sized ground. 1985 NM-B was required (90 degree C). 2003 outer jacket was first color coded.


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