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deanofmean said:
that,  Vermiculite contains  asbestos is a dumb rumor.
probably started by a Perlite manufacturer.

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to my best understanding, the rumor came from a vermiculite mine which was laden w/ crystallite? a carcinogenic substance.
when workers had health issues, they had initially associated it w/ the vermiculite.

the rumor is false.

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Justlookin0 said:

!!!Asbestos!!! That stuff hasnt been in use for decades. 

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true that it hasn't been used in a very long time...but its still out there.

I worked in the shipyards for years and had to deal with asbestos.
They used to use insulation to wrap pipes...this insulation contained asbestos. 
You would pull down the insulation off the pipes and see these little particles floating down on your ass.
Alot of shipyard workers died from inhalation of abestos...mesothelioma.
The problem is that these old ships still have asbestos insulation in them.

They test older ships for asbestos before they do work on them now.
When a ship is found to contain asbestos special teams are brought in to remove it.
They wear special suits and resperators...and the area is contained to keep the asbestos from floating around.


Asbestos can be in older homes too.
The ceilings in some homes from the 60's and 70's have this texture stuff that was put on the ceilings...this contained asbestos.
These homes have to have the asbestos removed before selling the home...most inspectors will test the ceilings with this popcorn texture for traces of asbestos.

Back to Vermiculite and asbestos.

here is a good web page on Vermiculite... http://www.vermiculite.net/

for the lazy people...I'll copy and paste the information.

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Recently there has been a lot of confusion about vermiculite and asbestos.
Recent newspaper articles, a 20/20 show, National Public Radio, McCall's magazine, and Newsweek, for instance, have addressed problems at the former Libby, Montana mine which has been closed since 1990.
These problems were very real, and continue to be a great concern to everyone affected---especially to the many miners and their families who worked in Libby.

Current manufacturers of vermiculite have known about this problem for years, and have had their material checked for possible asbestos contamination.

At The Schundler Company in New Jersey, for instance, during an inspection in early 2000, the federal Environmental Protection Agency tested vermiculite samples from 12 random piles of South African vermiculite, and could not find any asbestos in any of the samples.
Also during 2000, testing at the Dillon, Montana mine by MSHA found no asbestos fibers.
The results of other testing will be posted as soon as the final reports are completed, but so far initial reports from the other operating mines in North America are looking very, very good!

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tc