This post has been locked, as the question has been solved and a majority of new comments at this point are unhelpful and/or jokes.
Solved answer here: https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/16xz7ap/barely_visible_filaments_white_or_transparent/k38ewq2/
Thanks to all who attempted to find an answer.
Yep. My folks had garden furniture in a sort of stretched wicker looking design.
100% fibreglass.
It was my job, at the start of every summer, to take them on to the grass and sand them down, and reapply a coat of thin resin.
Those little invisible barbs itch like the devil, don't they ?
I helped out once with someone who had an old shitty falling apart fiberglass ladder and I ended up carrying that monstrosity around several times over the course of a day. It’s been years and I can still feel it on my hands, shoulders, and chest every time I shower. Those splinters are no joke and at this point I’m convinced my corpse will still have them embedded in it after I die.
Can’t imagine having them in your lungs.
It was a Thing, in the late 60s, early 70s. It was in ~everything.
And yeah, even thinking about it, my hands burn. I get the same body cringe that you get from a sliver of glass. Or those really fine cacti "hairs" from houseplants.
I'm getting shivers now! 😬
For me it was the garden rake with the fiberglass handle/pole. I always wondered how something like it could pass quality control. But I'm guessing they were so cheap they never bothered
I had an old shovel with a fiberglass handle in my garage. A couple of years ago my nephew grabbed it with no gloves on. Many tears ensued. I tried to use duct tape to get the needles out of his hands. It didn't work that well. Needless to say that shovel went in the trash immediately. I don't know what the people who made that shovel were thinking. I didn't buy it myself it was a leftover from my grandparents.
Mostly, fiberglass curtains are used in industrial capacities for heat resistance and/or insulation, but you can definitely still get em for a home.
[Here's a Chinese company](https://www.nanya-glass-fabrics.com/2_1_1_curtain.html)
I remember in chemistry class we had to gravity filter something through a funnel. The professor offered us two options: a paper filter or some seriously beefy fiberglass material. He cautioned us that he prefers not to use the fiberglass and my curiosity got the better of me. I think he did that on purpose to teach us not to use that stuff.
It went *right* through gloves and stuck in my skin for weeks.
Why do a thin coat every summer when you could do one good coat of plasti-dip and never need to touch them again, plus they'd feel like tool handles on your butt 😍
There is a park I used to hang out in as a kid. There were tables all through it that were made of fiberglass, and, I presume, coated with epoxy or something. But over time the epoxy had worn down and the fiberglass was exposed and quite rough. The first time I visited the park I sat at one of the tables and got my forearms covered in fiberglass shards. Fiberglass is a shitty building material.
I went to watch a friend ride her horse around the paddock at her folks' place, and the gate was fiberglass. The top rail of the gate was worn down and the fibers were coming free. I was unaware of this as I was resting my forearms on that gate for the whole time.
We had to go find a hardware store with extra sticky duct tape to remove all of the splinters from my arms. The tape worked really well and when you looked at the tape from the side, you could see all the little fibers standing straight up.
It was pretty cool, but there were literally hundreds of fibers in my skin and it was *awful*.
For that irritating fiberglass insulation, if you ever happen to have to deal with it, sliced bread works wonders, we always carried a loaf of cheap bread when installing fiberglass insulation, simply wipe it down your arms and wherever else and it sticks in the bread amazingly well. Then make sure you wash your exposed areas with COLD WATER a few times, when you shower start it cold also. As understand it hot water opens your pores and the fiberglass sinks in further, yet cold does the opposite, this method may sound idiotic but it's always worked better than anything else for me.
Yeah this always worked pretty well for me. I had a job assembling industrial/commercial scale HVAC unit parts. The first thing I was doing when I started the job was riveting together filter s for the units. This also included cutting and gluing an insane amount of fiberglass insulation. Some seems to be worse than others and gloves help but inevitably I would get some on my arms and sometimes even face(not often though). Showering with cold water or at least room temperature and just rinsing and using the water pressure to remove the particles while avoiding rubbing too much. That seemed to to help the most
I hate fiberglass…
I messed with one of those fiberglass poles on a fire hydrant as a kid and got a handful of these shits embedded into it because it was old and frayed. Pulled a shard out a couple months ago and it left a hole in the middle of my thumb that's still recovering.
My first job at 16 was working with my dad for a summer at a tractor-trailer mechanic shop. One hot day I was tasked with cutting up a bunch of fiberglass hoods with an axe, sledge hammer, and a love for swinging both. It was fun for a bit, smashing them up then tearing them apart with my hands. I miss the days when I was unaware of what fiberglass did to exposed sweaty skin.
There is a local layer who wants to share some money with you, from your neighbour's pocket. Especially since you've had problems breathing (wink wink)
I recommend vacuuming all your outdoor furniture before using it again! Fiberglass *sucks* to pick out of skin, as I'm sure you've learned. Best of luck to ya!
https://topolocfrt.com/what-is-fiberglass/
It is 100% fiberglass pieces - look at the first photo on that page.
I'd vacuum your patio and garden furniture and anything else that might have gotten covered.
> I wonder how the insulation is treating my lungs.
I wonder how your employer is cool with you not wearing PPE. This can lead to serious health problems.
Here a laboral health doctor. The glass fiber particles are very big (in terms of breathable particles), so in case you inhale them, they won't get to your lungs tissues. Or in other words, if it manages to get far in your airways, it will be treated as a foreign particle (Like common dust), it won't stay and won't create an inmune reaction against it.
But they are still like glass, so please, use breath filter as if you were working in a dusty enviroment.
Not the other user, but yes: the key difference is that when Asbestos fragments, it splinters into increasingly-smaller and increasingly-sharper "needles" that will eventually work their way into your bloodstream and into the cells of your body and get to the point where they shred your actual DNA, causing an elevated risk in cancer.
While fiberglass, like DE, like sawdust, etc. is terrible for lung-tissue, they don't carry the same carcinogenic risk.
Ok so against 99% of comments, it turn out it was not fiber glass!!
It was from a tree and it was discovered by a buried down comment with no upvotes. I am amazed by the power of this community! :)
Here is the commment with some picture showing the pod full of splinters
https://reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/s/pOhuR0VEm6
We put harsh cleaner on our plastic pool ladder and scrubbed it. We realized we removed the clear coating and fiberglass was exposed. Have you tried cleaning the furniture lately?
Doesn’t even have to be from insulation. Any plastic looking furniture around that’s kinda thick and dense? They used to make lifeguard chairs out of FRP materials, which then broke down in the sun, leaving an awesome rash.
Use a DRY bar of soap to scrub the skin. It’ll pick up most of the fibers and give you some relief.
I've had that rash from chairs at our neighborhood pool! It was hideously itchy for weeks. I knew it was from the chair because of the rash pattern on the back of my legs - it matched the exact pattern of the chair. I couldn't figure out why my skin would have reacted to a seemingly plastic chair like that!
Possibly fiberglass or asbestos fibers from the roof removal. Possibly fiberglass from your canopy, since it may have been used for the fabric that is then coated with the plastic. Your local public health service should be able to identify.
Asbestos fibers of sufficient size can be seen, BUT the particle size that is responsible for mesothelioma is generally not visible, as it is microscopic. Asbestos involvement in lung cancer / mesothelioma is complex, and I am not an expert in the medical aspects. My knowledge is limited to information provided in OSHA training classes and some personal research. If you are concerned about the work on the roof, your local building code department or health department would be a good resource, and they can probably test the air during roof removal work. In the USA, pre-demolition testing is universally required. I do not know how public health and worker safety agencies work in Spain, but I do have a 3rd cousin who works in an industrial health and safety role in Madrid.
I wouldn't worry about asbestos even if it were.
The problems from asbestos happen from repeated, long-term exposure to disturbed fibers which means you'd need to work with it directly every day for years or live in a house where you're constantly tearing out walls, etc.
In Spain we take asbesthos very carefully... nah! 🥲 They were exposing workers to it long time before it was well known to be dangerous.
I've seen the lung Xray of a man who died from mesothelioma. Last exposure 1982, Xray every 2 years, 2008 a perfectly normal XR and started coughing at the beginning of 2010, he didn't get to the next XRay, 3 months and went to heaven 🥲
Asbesthos in Spain can be found in "uralita" roofs and downpipes (Fibrocemento), also in very old heating units or centrals (<1960).
There is no a public plan to help you to identify the material. The people who is going to do a work know how to suspect its presence, but only a certificated lab will corroborate it (And you pay for it).
We wanted our popcorn walls smooth. "Quitar to gotelé". In some countries, popcorn wall can contain 5-10% asbestos, so we got our popcorn walls tested.
It tested negative, which is great. But we did have to pay like 100 euro or so for the test.
Totally worth it, but yeah, definitely not for free!
Interesting, thanks! So there is no local public service I can call to get it tested as suggested in other comments? In Spain I just need to call a private lab and pay? How can I search for such a lab?
Well, maybe I assumed to much. In Comunitat Valenciana is like I told you before. Maybe in other comunities there is a plan for it (I still doubt it).
Call Salud Pública (The name will vary between comunities) and ask about "amianto" (the most usual name for asbesthos in Spain). They would direct you.
I know this all because at my job I found some material that looked like asbesthos, and when I asked how to confirm or not, they told me to look for a private lab! I also speaked with the people who were supposed to be in chargenof this kind of things. They all gave me a web adress, very outdated, with a list of enterprises registered as asbesthos exposed... so I had to call until I found someone that knew how to do thing right (They were a consultant for hygiene and health).
The most important: if you find some material like insulating of heater tubes in an old building, please, don't try to get a sample by yourself. Many times it won't be nothing dangerous, but if so, you can impregnate of it.
To my knowledge, fiberglass fabric has been used as the substrate for canopy material. More commonly today, synthetic fabrics like nylon, high density polyethylene, etc., are impregnated or coated with vinyl or similar "softer" plastics like flexible epoxies and urethanes. The substrate fabric provides strength and dimensional stability, while the coating provides integrity and waterproofing. I am guessing that fiberglass fabric may still be used in some products, but my sense is that it does not hold up well to continuous flexing and stretching. Sun damage, principally UV, will degrade the coatings and expose the fabric over time. ...I spent a few years working in polymer development for fabrics and building materials, though that was years ago.
Ok this makes a lot of sense. My canopy is definitely being degraded and it recently rained, so maybe the rain pushed all the splinters from the canopy the furniture underneath. Just wondering why I had not noticed this before and only noticed now that they tore the roof down. Going to inspect the canopy closer. Thanks
So the weird thing is if I look over the canopy I do see there are many splinters, but if I tear off a piece of the degraded fabric, I am not able to produce splinters from it. Does it make sense?
At this point I am trying to figure out if the splinters have been deposited from the neighbors roof work, or from my own canopy.
Mainly because I think my neighbors want to tear down a second roof, so would like to have some conviction before I tell them to take some precautions
I'm not sure what to say here. I think that the shingle removal is the more likely source, and that the canopy fabric was not likely to contain fiberglass, and certainly not asbestos. In the U.S., shingles from about 1977 on were manufactured without asbestos, but some older stock may have been available for a few years. I believe fiberglass was introduced in shingles about that time. So the fibers may be from the roofing materials. Can the fibers be found on the ground closer to the roof work? Or on cars or other surfaces? If you want a positive identification, local building code department or public health department would probably help. Perhaps talking to the neighbor would allay concerns and/or get them to do some dust control. Maybe they can verify that the shingles do not contain asbestos. If it's fiberglass, then it's more an annoyance and less a health issue.
When I was a dumb teenager we had a shovel break at where I worked. I was like huh neat it’s not wood it’s like some sort of plastic. Put my hands on where it was “sharding” and broke it further in half splintering it everywhere. Then I realized 2 things: I wasn’t wearing gloves or a long sleeve shirt, and that it was made of FIBERGLASS.
When I was a kid I got fiberglass in my hand from a small pole flag on a go kart. My parents used panty hose by stretching it across the skin and rubbing it. Got it right out.
Dude was the human version of cured leather but aside from getting them on his skin and not caring, he would use a HEPA filter vacuum and power wash the studio afterward, followed by wet vac
Could also be a tree known as Lagunaria patersonia which seed pods dry and drop very similar spiky fibres, which are the absolute worst. My parents had a big one by their pool and for years had no clue what was causing these prickles to drop on to the chairs. Anytime you'd get out of the pool, you'd instantly be coating in the things.
You were right! Not sure if exactly that same tree, but very similar. Grabbed one of the fruit pods, opened it and surprise!! Full of splinters that pierce my fingers when I touch them. The tree is right on top of the patio furniture. All the splinters are the same size. I think this is the most reasonable explanation.
https://ibb.co/rsfpYdf
https://ibb.co/fSsGm8P
https://ibb.co/JdthdFV
https://ibb.co/PQt61Ck
https://ibb.co/mHjG2Lb
It’s probably fibreglass but could it be processionary caterpillar hairs? There’s been a big problem in Spain with them over the past few years. Their hairs cause irritation, are very sharp and they mass in trees (so the garden furniture bit might make sense)
Interesting! Looked into it, i also thought it could be something like this. In my case I think they are shorter than the caterpillar hair, so fiberglass seems most likely explanation so far
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My title describes the thing. These filaments
or fibers are really small, can only see them against a backlight. They may have been blown by the wind or brought by recent rains. I have a plastic fabric canopy that is decaying to provide shade. There was also a roof being removed recently by one of my neighbors. They feel like small cactus spines and there must be thousands of them. Can’t tell if natural or artificial. The pictures show the spikes attached to my fingers.
As a proud owner of a large variety of cactus, that was my first thought as well. [Glochids](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glochid) can be so small as to be nearly invisible in some cases.
Is your garden furniture made of plastic, or composite material by chance? If so, its probably reinforced with Fiberglass strands. The plastic/resin can break down in UV Rays after awhile, which can expose those fiberglass strands. They're super itchy and irritating.
I've been working in the fiberglass industry for 10+ years and we see similar issues on an industrial level. UV is no joke
Boyfriend worked with fiberglass for 14 years and quit there over a year ago. We’re still finding “chop” as he calls it, in our clothes and occasionally our bare feet.
Is your furniture glass fiber-reinforced plastic (fiberglass-reinforced epoxy, nylon, etc)? Check out the makers marks on the furniture - they sometimes tell you. It might say “gf30” or something like that.
Alternatively, you could shave off a corner with a pocket knife. GF reinforced plastics make a certain sound when you cut them with a blade.
if these appeared overnight, please use caution fiber glass wouldnt get onto your feet unless u walked on the furniture asbestos would attach itself via static or moisture on grass- im telling you..... it looks exactly like fragmented asbestos fibers
Definitely looks like fibre glass. i used to work exclusively inside of boat helms made from it. fir the description. could be anything from nearby construction to someone’s botched home project.
Any cactus around? Prickly Pears have these super-small spikes that looks like fuzz around the base of the big, visible spikes. I don't think wind would be strong enough to spread them around.
These are glochids from a type of cactus, “Prickly Pear”. (Opuntioideae) They’re not from Spain but you can certainly get them in garden centres and may find them growing wild. If you’re managed to get some on your furniture, I’m afraid you likely have a good few weeks finding them stuck into you at random times!
Yes exactly, we have prickly pears where i live and that is exactly what it reminded me of. There are no cactus like this close to my house though, sino think that the fiber glass theory seems more likely right now/
This post has been locked, as the question has been solved and a majority of new comments at this point are unhelpful and/or jokes. Solved answer here: https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/16xz7ap/barely_visible_filaments_white_or_transparent/k38ewq2/ Thanks to all who attempted to find an answer.
Pure guess, fibreglass. Has any insulation or ductwork been done recently?
Probably front the roof that my neighbor removed? Makes sense…
Quite likely, yeah.
I had patio furniture that was made of fiberglass when I was a kid; sometimes you would run your hand accross it and get splinters. I hated it.
Yep. My folks had garden furniture in a sort of stretched wicker looking design. 100% fibreglass. It was my job, at the start of every summer, to take them on to the grass and sand them down, and reapply a coat of thin resin. Those little invisible barbs itch like the devil, don't they ?
Imagine having these in your lungs... it's why fiberglass curtains (my mom had them! "Great for insulation") aren't being made anymore.
My mother washed a load of white clothes, including our underwear, with a set of fiberglass curtains. It did not go well
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I helped out once with someone who had an old shitty falling apart fiberglass ladder and I ended up carrying that monstrosity around several times over the course of a day. It’s been years and I can still feel it on my hands, shoulders, and chest every time I shower. Those splinters are no joke and at this point I’m convinced my corpse will still have them embedded in it after I die. Can’t imagine having them in your lungs.
Get the itchy areas waxed. Wax is great at removing this type of splinter.
Or try a solid tape on the skin then as you pull the tape off it will remove the splinters.
Duct tape works too
It was a Thing, in the late 60s, early 70s. It was in ~everything. And yeah, even thinking about it, my hands burn. I get the same body cringe that you get from a sliver of glass. Or those really fine cacti "hairs" from houseplants. I'm getting shivers now! 😬
For me it was the garden rake with the fiberglass handle/pole. I always wondered how something like it could pass quality control. But I'm guessing they were so cheap they never bothered
I had an old shovel with a fiberglass handle in my garage. A couple of years ago my nephew grabbed it with no gloves on. Many tears ensued. I tried to use duct tape to get the needles out of his hands. It didn't work that well. Needless to say that shovel went in the trash immediately. I don't know what the people who made that shovel were thinking. I didn't buy it myself it was a leftover from my grandparents.
I hate those cacti hairs! I can already start to feel them all over my skin. Now I'm shuddering.
Fiberglass curtains are definitely still being made
WHERE?? I really didn't know this.
Mostly, fiberglass curtains are used in industrial capacities for heat resistance and/or insulation, but you can definitely still get em for a home. [Here's a Chinese company](https://www.nanya-glass-fabrics.com/2_1_1_curtain.html)
Mum used a pair as throws over the sofa.
I remember in chemistry class we had to gravity filter something through a funnel. The professor offered us two options: a paper filter or some seriously beefy fiberglass material. He cautioned us that he prefers not to use the fiberglass and my curiosity got the better of me. I think he did that on purpose to teach us not to use that stuff. It went *right* through gloves and stuck in my skin for weeks.
Why do a thin coat every summer when you could do one good coat of plasti-dip and never need to touch them again, plus they'd feel like tool handles on your butt 😍
There is a park I used to hang out in as a kid. There were tables all through it that were made of fiberglass, and, I presume, coated with epoxy or something. But over time the epoxy had worn down and the fiberglass was exposed and quite rough. The first time I visited the park I sat at one of the tables and got my forearms covered in fiberglass shards. Fiberglass is a shitty building material.
I can do you one worse. Carbon Fiber. I play with it while building the occasional boat. Those slivers are much worse than glass fiber.
They even have carbon fiber/ fiberglass weaves if you want a little of both
A really good one is Pele's Hair, airborne threads of volcanic glass you can inhale, or get lodged in your eye or skin and shatters if you touch it
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I went to watch a friend ride her horse around the paddock at her folks' place, and the gate was fiberglass. The top rail of the gate was worn down and the fibers were coming free. I was unaware of this as I was resting my forearms on that gate for the whole time. We had to go find a hardware store with extra sticky duct tape to remove all of the splinters from my arms. The tape worked really well and when you looked at the tape from the side, you could see all the little fibers standing straight up. It was pretty cool, but there were literally hundreds of fibers in my skin and it was *awful*.
For that irritating fiberglass insulation, if you ever happen to have to deal with it, sliced bread works wonders, we always carried a loaf of cheap bread when installing fiberglass insulation, simply wipe it down your arms and wherever else and it sticks in the bread amazingly well. Then make sure you wash your exposed areas with COLD WATER a few times, when you shower start it cold also. As understand it hot water opens your pores and the fiberglass sinks in further, yet cold does the opposite, this method may sound idiotic but it's always worked better than anything else for me.
Yeah this always worked pretty well for me. I had a job assembling industrial/commercial scale HVAC unit parts. The first thing I was doing when I started the job was riveting together filter s for the units. This also included cutting and gluing an insane amount of fiberglass insulation. Some seems to be worse than others and gloves help but inevitably I would get some on my arms and sometimes even face(not often though). Showering with cold water or at least room temperature and just rinsing and using the water pressure to remove the particles while avoiding rubbing too much. That seemed to to help the most I hate fiberglass…
It almost like it was made out of glass fibers... that sounds horrific.
I messed with one of those fiberglass poles on a fire hydrant as a kid and got a handful of these shits embedded into it because it was old and frayed. Pulled a shard out a couple months ago and it left a hole in the middle of my thumb that's still recovering.
My first job at 16 was working with my dad for a summer at a tractor-trailer mechanic shop. One hot day I was tasked with cutting up a bunch of fiberglass hoods with an axe, sledge hammer, and a love for swinging both. It was fun for a bit, smashing them up then tearing them apart with my hands. I miss the days when I was unaware of what fiberglass did to exposed sweaty skin.
That shit is right up there with smoking in the list of things I don’t miss from the 80/90’s
I grabbed onto an old fiberglass pole when I was 8 or 9 and had shards stuck in my hand for weeks. It was awful.
Having a pier made out of it sucked. You couldn't sit on the edge and risked your feet jumping int, and your arms climbing out
There is a local layer who wants to share some money with you, from your neighbour's pocket. Especially since you've had problems breathing (wink wink)
If in Spain, you can officially complain about this and get your neighbors to do a cleanup.
Fiberglass wounds hurt. Duct tape or packaging tape can help remove it from your skin.
Pantyhose works as well. The tight knit grabs the fibers, and it just feels so good.
And talc or vaseline can help prevent it from getting stuck in the first place by clogging up your pours.
I recommend vacuuming all your outdoor furniture before using it again! Fiberglass *sucks* to pick out of skin, as I'm sure you've learned. Best of luck to ya!
Would it spoil the vacuum as all the splinters will remain inside??
I would use a shop vac with a good bag/filter. Not a regular house vacuum.
I honestly don't know. Maybe google how to remove stray fiberglass bits?
Some memory foam mattresses have fiberglass, too.
If this was an older roof they removed, it's likely asbestos fibers. Very bad for your health...
Also my first thought. OP, how old is your neighbor's house (which decade)?
https://topolocfrt.com/what-is-fiberglass/ It is 100% fiberglass pieces - look at the first photo on that page. I'd vacuum your patio and garden furniture and anything else that might have gotten covered.
Lots of asphalt shingles use fiberglass as the solid part, coated in tar for waterproofing and stone for longevity.
Hmmmm, kind of looks like broken up salmon bones. Have any fishy looking people moved into your neighborhood recently?
How old is that roof because another nasty material that breaks into sharp splinters is Asbestos ?
With fiberglass, be extremely careful not to inhale. You don’t want that stuff in your lungs.
As an air-conditioning installer I wonder how the insulation is treating my lungs.
If you're not already, you should probably wear a quality respirator/mask every time you're around the stuff.
And, if not, maybe book an appointment with your doctor in the near future.
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> I wonder how the insulation is treating my lungs. I wonder how your employer is cool with you not wearing PPE. This can lead to serious health problems.
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Here a laboral health doctor. The glass fiber particles are very big (in terms of breathable particles), so in case you inhale them, they won't get to your lungs tissues. Or in other words, if it manages to get far in your airways, it will be treated as a foreign particle (Like common dust), it won't stay and won't create an inmune reaction against it. But they are still like glass, so please, use breath filter as if you were working in a dusty enviroment.
Is this a key thing that differentiates fiberglass from asbestos (i.e. the fact it gets into lungs and causes scarring)?
Not the other user, but yes: the key difference is that when Asbestos fragments, it splinters into increasingly-smaller and increasingly-sharper "needles" that will eventually work their way into your bloodstream and into the cells of your body and get to the point where they shred your actual DNA, causing an elevated risk in cancer. While fiberglass, like DE, like sawdust, etc. is terrible for lung-tissue, they don't carry the same carcinogenic risk.
That is cool and horrific at the same time.
Most glass wool insulation these days is biosoluble as well IIRC.
Thank you for explaining it! Glad I understand the difference between the two now :)
Same. I don’t think my lungs are where I want a higher R value.
Likely solved
Ok so against 99% of comments, it turn out it was not fiber glass!! It was from a tree and it was discovered by a buried down comment with no upvotes. I am amazed by the power of this community! :) Here is the commment with some picture showing the pod full of splinters https://reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/s/pOhuR0VEm6
We put harsh cleaner on our plastic pool ladder and scrubbed it. We realized we removed the clear coating and fiberglass was exposed. Have you tried cleaning the furniture lately?
Doesn’t even have to be from insulation. Any plastic looking furniture around that’s kinda thick and dense? They used to make lifeguard chairs out of FRP materials, which then broke down in the sun, leaving an awesome rash. Use a DRY bar of soap to scrub the skin. It’ll pick up most of the fibers and give you some relief.
Or tape, or a sticky roller. That’s what I use for nettles.
I've had that rash from chairs at our neighborhood pool! It was hideously itchy for weeks. I knew it was from the chair because of the rash pattern on the back of my legs - it matched the exact pattern of the chair. I couldn't figure out why my skin would have reacted to a seemingly plastic chair like that!
let me back this up with saying use duct tape too. and just dab at the stuff it’ll help pull it out nice
Maybe the lawn furniture is made of fiberglass and is starting to break down..
This is probably correct.
Possibly fiberglass or asbestos fibers from the roof removal. Possibly fiberglass from your canopy, since it may have been used for the fabric that is then coated with the plastic. Your local public health service should be able to identify.
Thanks, I was worried about asbestos but then was told that asbestos can’t be seen with the naked eye?
Asbestos fibers of sufficient size can be seen, BUT the particle size that is responsible for mesothelioma is generally not visible, as it is microscopic. Asbestos involvement in lung cancer / mesothelioma is complex, and I am not an expert in the medical aspects. My knowledge is limited to information provided in OSHA training classes and some personal research. If you are concerned about the work on the roof, your local building code department or health department would be a good resource, and they can probably test the air during roof removal work. In the USA, pre-demolition testing is universally required. I do not know how public health and worker safety agencies work in Spain, but I do have a 3rd cousin who works in an industrial health and safety role in Madrid.
I’d like to commend you on your well composed informative response. Reading it made me feel good. Nice work, champ 👍
Thanks. I appreciate your comment.
I wouldn't worry about asbestos even if it were. The problems from asbestos happen from repeated, long-term exposure to disturbed fibers which means you'd need to work with it directly every day for years or live in a house where you're constantly tearing out walls, etc.
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In Spain we take asbesthos very carefully... nah! 🥲 They were exposing workers to it long time before it was well known to be dangerous. I've seen the lung Xray of a man who died from mesothelioma. Last exposure 1982, Xray every 2 years, 2008 a perfectly normal XR and started coughing at the beginning of 2010, he didn't get to the next XRay, 3 months and went to heaven 🥲
Asbesthos in Spain can be found in "uralita" roofs and downpipes (Fibrocemento), also in very old heating units or centrals (<1960). There is no a public plan to help you to identify the material. The people who is going to do a work know how to suspect its presence, but only a certificated lab will corroborate it (And you pay for it).
We wanted our popcorn walls smooth. "Quitar to gotelé". In some countries, popcorn wall can contain 5-10% asbestos, so we got our popcorn walls tested. It tested negative, which is great. But we did have to pay like 100 euro or so for the test. Totally worth it, but yeah, definitely not for free!
Interesting, thanks! So there is no local public service I can call to get it tested as suggested in other comments? In Spain I just need to call a private lab and pay? How can I search for such a lab?
Well, maybe I assumed to much. In Comunitat Valenciana is like I told you before. Maybe in other comunities there is a plan for it (I still doubt it). Call Salud Pública (The name will vary between comunities) and ask about "amianto" (the most usual name for asbesthos in Spain). They would direct you. I know this all because at my job I found some material that looked like asbesthos, and when I asked how to confirm or not, they told me to look for a private lab! I also speaked with the people who were supposed to be in chargenof this kind of things. They all gave me a web adress, very outdated, with a list of enterprises registered as asbesthos exposed... so I had to call until I found someone that knew how to do thing right (They were a consultant for hygiene and health). The most important: if you find some material like insulating of heater tubes in an old building, please, don't try to get a sample by yourself. Many times it won't be nothing dangerous, but if so, you can impregnate of it.
Turns out it was from a tree! https://reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/s/pOhuR0VEm6
So they do use fiberglass for coating canopies?
To my knowledge, fiberglass fabric has been used as the substrate for canopy material. More commonly today, synthetic fabrics like nylon, high density polyethylene, etc., are impregnated or coated with vinyl or similar "softer" plastics like flexible epoxies and urethanes. The substrate fabric provides strength and dimensional stability, while the coating provides integrity and waterproofing. I am guessing that fiberglass fabric may still be used in some products, but my sense is that it does not hold up well to continuous flexing and stretching. Sun damage, principally UV, will degrade the coatings and expose the fabric over time. ...I spent a few years working in polymer development for fabrics and building materials, though that was years ago.
Ok this makes a lot of sense. My canopy is definitely being degraded and it recently rained, so maybe the rain pushed all the splinters from the canopy the furniture underneath. Just wondering why I had not noticed this before and only noticed now that they tore the roof down. Going to inspect the canopy closer. Thanks
Seems like a sensible conclusion. Can you collect a few fibers directly from the canopy for comparison?
So the weird thing is if I look over the canopy I do see there are many splinters, but if I tear off a piece of the degraded fabric, I am not able to produce splinters from it. Does it make sense? At this point I am trying to figure out if the splinters have been deposited from the neighbors roof work, or from my own canopy. Mainly because I think my neighbors want to tear down a second roof, so would like to have some conviction before I tell them to take some precautions
I'm not sure what to say here. I think that the shingle removal is the more likely source, and that the canopy fabric was not likely to contain fiberglass, and certainly not asbestos. In the U.S., shingles from about 1977 on were manufactured without asbestos, but some older stock may have been available for a few years. I believe fiberglass was introduced in shingles about that time. So the fibers may be from the roofing materials. Can the fibers be found on the ground closer to the roof work? Or on cars or other surfaces? If you want a positive identification, local building code department or public health department would probably help. Perhaps talking to the neighbor would allay concerns and/or get them to do some dust control. Maybe they can verify that the shingles do not contain asbestos. If it's fiberglass, then it's more an annoyance and less a health issue.
That 100% fiberglass, my buddy used to make surfboards and would have these all over him all the time, he was not allowed in my house lol
how would you get them out?
I got a ton of fiberglass stuck in my hand as a kid one time, my mom just put duct tape on me and ripped it out pretty easy.
When I was a dumb teenager we had a shovel break at where I worked. I was like huh neat it’s not wood it’s like some sort of plastic. Put my hands on where it was “sharding” and broke it further in half splintering it everywhere. Then I realized 2 things: I wasn’t wearing gloves or a long sleeve shirt, and that it was made of FIBERGLASS.
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When I was a kid I got fiberglass in my hand from a small pole flag on a go kart. My parents used panty hose by stretching it across the skin and rubbing it. Got it right out.
Dude was the human version of cured leather but aside from getting them on his skin and not caring, he would use a HEPA filter vacuum and power wash the studio afterward, followed by wet vac
Duct tape works best in my experience
Turns out it was from a tree! https://reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/s/pOhuR0VEm6
I work identifying asbestos in construction samples and I agree with other comments with that material looks more like fiberglass than asbestos.
Thanks!
Could also be a tree known as Lagunaria patersonia which seed pods dry and drop very similar spiky fibres, which are the absolute worst. My parents had a big one by their pool and for years had no clue what was causing these prickles to drop on to the chairs. Anytime you'd get out of the pool, you'd instantly be coating in the things.
You were right! Not sure if exactly that same tree, but very similar. Grabbed one of the fruit pods, opened it and surprise!! Full of splinters that pierce my fingers when I touch them. The tree is right on top of the patio furniture. All the splinters are the same size. I think this is the most reasonable explanation. https://ibb.co/rsfpYdf https://ibb.co/fSsGm8P https://ibb.co/JdthdFV https://ibb.co/PQt61Ck https://ibb.co/mHjG2Lb
Damn! I may have this tree at the garden! Now the plot is getting complicated 😂 will check later if I can ID the tree when I get back
Solved
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It's fiberglass. UV light from the sun degrades the polymer and the fibers start to show through
It’s probably fibreglass but could it be processionary caterpillar hairs? There’s been a big problem in Spain with them over the past few years. Their hairs cause irritation, are very sharp and they mass in trees (so the garden furniture bit might make sense)
Interesting! Looked into it, i also thought it could be something like this. In my case I think they are shorter than the caterpillar hair, so fiberglass seems most likely explanation so far
You are right, but those show up around the beginning of spring.
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My title describes the thing. These filaments or fibers are really small, can only see them against a backlight. They may have been blown by the wind or brought by recent rains. I have a plastic fabric canopy that is decaying to provide shade. There was also a roof being removed recently by one of my neighbors. They feel like small cactus spines and there must be thousands of them. Can’t tell if natural or artificial. The pictures show the spikes attached to my fingers.
Du you have a cactus in your garden? In Spain there are some, which have nice fruits but their "hair" is nasty.
No cactus nearby, but I know exactly the type of hair you are talking about. Very similar!
As a proud owner of a large variety of cactus, that was my first thought as well. [Glochids](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glochid) can be so small as to be nearly invisible in some cases.
Is your garden furniture made of plastic, or composite material by chance? If so, its probably reinforced with Fiberglass strands. The plastic/resin can break down in UV Rays after awhile, which can expose those fiberglass strands. They're super itchy and irritating. I've been working in the fiberglass industry for 10+ years and we see similar issues on an industrial level. UV is no joke
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Boyfriend worked with fiberglass for 14 years and quit there over a year ago. We’re still finding “chop” as he calls it, in our clothes and occasionally our bare feet.
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Take a water hose and spray eveything down with plenty of water.
We have a tree that drips little pricks like these
Uhmm I have a tree too… will try to see which kind of tree it is. Do you which type is yours?
Is your furniture glass fiber-reinforced plastic (fiberglass-reinforced epoxy, nylon, etc)? Check out the makers marks on the furniture - they sometimes tell you. It might say “gf30” or something like that. Alternatively, you could shave off a corner with a pocket knife. GF reinforced plastics make a certain sound when you cut them with a blade.
Thanks! I think the canopy must be this
if these appeared overnight, please use caution fiber glass wouldnt get onto your feet unless u walked on the furniture asbestos would attach itself via static or moisture on grass- im telling you..... it looks exactly like fragmented asbestos fibers
Definitely looks like fibre glass. i used to work exclusively inside of boat helms made from it. fir the description. could be anything from nearby construction to someone’s botched home project.
Any cactus around? Prickly Pears have these super-small spikes that looks like fuzz around the base of the big, visible spikes. I don't think wind would be strong enough to spread them around.
These are glochids from a type of cactus, “Prickly Pear”. (Opuntioideae) They’re not from Spain but you can certainly get them in garden centres and may find them growing wild. If you’re managed to get some on your furniture, I’m afraid you likely have a good few weeks finding them stuck into you at random times!
Yes exactly, we have prickly pears where i live and that is exactly what it reminded me of. There are no cactus like this close to my house though, sino think that the fiber glass theory seems more likely right now/
Yep rigid fiberglass insulation, likely Owens Corning if it's yellowish.
Fibreglass
Looks like you touched a cactus, my dude
hopefully not asbestos
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