u/AdAccomplished746

I purchased 4 cubic feet of Therm-o-rock vermiculite (Denver, CO, USA) from a gardening center to fill my raised bed. I just found out that vermiculite may contain asbestos so wanted to look into it more.

Therm-o-rock vermiculite does not warn asbestos anywhere on the packaging or safety testing sheet (link: SDS-for-Vermiculite.pdf). But it does have silica in the composition table. I have a feeling the asbestos may be reported as silica.

The safety sheet strikes me as purposefully misleading:

1. It never says that this product contains no asbestos.
2. It labels silica as ~1 % but verminulite as > 98%, there is 1 % that is missing here. Are we talking 1.1 % silica or 1.9% silica? Give me 2 significant figures at least.
3. Does not report the source mine(s).

In 2000, this was one of the 17 vermiculite products tested that contain asbestos, very well may still be one of those products. I have not been able to find the source mine of the vermiculite in the company website.

Any thoughts?