Social Media Groups Advice – Good or Bad?

In a world where information can be found instantaneously, we look at the quality of this information. Social media plays a big part and many D.I.Y and trades groups can be found on Facebook, TikTok and other platforms.

Many social media users have large amounts of friends on the app. Public groups can host thousands of participants and a question posted can attract hundreds of replies and opinions. We decided to look at a group on Facebook designed to provide help and information on building and D.I.Y projects in the UK.

Asbestos Advice Found on Facebook

It was not long before we discovered a post from a user who posted a photo of his artex ceilings. He was keen to get rid of the old design and instead have a modern flat ceiling. Normally you should have the ceiling tested in case it contains asbestos but we found comments like this:

• “Buy this scraper from Screwfix, spray the ceiling with water and scrape it all off until flat”
• “That’s ugly, Hire a sander and sand it all off!”
• “Be careful, that ceiling might contain asbestos!”
• “Apply some blue grit and then have it plastered”
• “Just overboard the whole ceiling, nothing else is worth the hassle”.

If we look at the above comments we can see the advice coming in from the group participants. You can see how quickly a situation can become very dangerous. If a novice took the first comment to be the way to go, then they could potentially be putting themselves and their family in danger. Anything that could contain asbestos should NEVER be sanded or scraped.

We were encouraged to see many group members warning about asbestos but the important thing is to be careful where your information comes from and always consult a professional if in doubt.

Asbestos Surveyors Northern Ireland

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