asbestos testing?

while vermiculite isnt an asbestos per se, (its a mica) there are sometimes associated types of asbestos in vermiculite insulation. When they heat it and it Pops little amounts of asbestos are included from the rock deposit.
You can rent an X ray flourescence scanner(Its about as easy to opereate as a metal detector, dont let anyone bullshit you) you can rent these at many rental centers or school lab supply companies. If you hire a specialist, you usually get some technician whose had about 24 hours of training and will do the minimum.
Id suggest that you get handfulls of the vermiculite from your attic and randomly test it. The Xray (XRF its called in shorthand) will detect and record and print out concentrations about as low as 1 ppm.
Another way is to take a shop vacuum and put a sheet of HEPA filter (wet) on the exhaust and suck the air from your attic for about 15 minutes. Stir up the corners and fluff up the vermiculite. Then trake the HEPA filter paper and hold it under the XRF beam window an read. I think this way is probly more indicative of whats your environmental exposure.

The old gypsum board (drywall) had a material called KAYLO mixed in and this contained 2 of the asbestos minerals , chrysotile and amosite. (Most of these "kaylo deposits" were from Africa and Quebec. If youve ever had water damage that fluffed up the drywall, and if it was made before, say 1980, it could have had kaylo in it so, Id be more concerned about replacing that cuz its closer than the attic and attics are vented

farmerman, thank you for responding,its a tuff one, there is so much different contravery over vermiculite, we had a home inspection on a house, and well scared us..... called a insulation place and they make it sound like something out of a movie and want a small fortune to test it. we are from a small town and really don't know where to send it, we are from western bc. ???????

The asbestos testing market is full of rip-off artists who are trying to scare people about their homes. Thats why Im touting the do it yourself" method. You can learn the technical stuff about the kinds of asbestos by reading the internet and , if you do my vacuum filter method, you could do an XRF read yourself or send the filter paper to a university with a mineralogy /petrology program in its geology department. Canada has quite a number of good ones that Im familiar with. I useF/M college, Penn State or U of Penn or U of Delaware for my analysis needs. Usually a complete mineral scan by microscopy and X ray shouldnt cost more than100$ per sample. You dont need anything real sophisticated because the crystal of asbestos has a unigue shape and thats what the x ray picks out. I do asbestos scans for my ores ( I do a lot of mining geo) and I have to make sure that stuff isnt shipped open if it has a lot of tiny particulates. I do a compliance sampling about every 10 tons.