Asbestos air pollution

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos air pollution, by I.J. Selikoff, W.J. Nicholson, A.M. Langer (Archives of Environmental Health, 1972).

The study

• Authors: I.J. Selikoff, W.J. Nicholson, A.M. Langer
• Journal: Archives of Environmental Health
• Published: 1972;25(1):1-13
• Cited by: 81 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 002432).

In plain English

This paper, read at a 1970 conference, reviewed earlier reports and gave the authors' preliminary measurements of asbestos in outdoor air. Air was collected on filters, and the material was ashed and placed on grids, where chrysotile mass was estimated by electron microscopy. At New York City sites away from known asbestos sources, chrysotile ranged from 11 to 21 billionths of a gram per cubic meter on Staten Island to 25 to 60 in Manhattan. Near Manhattan buildings being sprayed with asbestos fireproofing, one downwind site measured 45 to 80, and upwind sites measured 20. Philadelphia measured 45 to 100. Amosite fibers were found in air at Port Allegany, Pennsylvania, where a factory used amosite. An earlier autopsy study by Langer and colleagues found asbestos bodies in 1,449 of 3,000 New York lungs (48.3%). Chrysotile was seen in all 28 lungs examined by electron microscopy, but only in 24 did the amount exceed what background contamination could explain. The authors concluded that asbestos pollution of urban air is established but that the related disease risk has not been defined. They called the air data preliminary and limited.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Conference paper combining a review of earlier reports with preliminary ambient air measurements by the authors; it also restates an earlier autopsy lung study by the same group (Langer et al)
• Who was studied: Ambient air at sampling sites in the five New York City boroughs (public buildings distant from known asbestos sources), five sites near Manhattan construction using sprayed asbestos fireproofing, and Philadelphia, Ridgewood NJ, and Port Allegany Pa; earlier autopsy data from 3,000 consecutive autopsies in New York City, 1966 to 1968
• Exposure: Chrysotile asbestos in ambient air. Samples were collected on membrane filters, ashed, dispersed, and transferred to electron microscope grids scanned at 42,000x, and mass was estimated from fibril volume. Also sprayed fireproofing containing 10% to 30% asbestos near construction sites, and amosite near a factory in Port Allegany
• Main results:
  • Chrysotile in New York City ambient air, in units of 10 to the minus 9 grams per cubic meter: Manhattan 25 to 60, Bronx 25 to 28, Brooklyn 19 to 22, Queens 18 to 29, Staten Island 11 to 21
  • Manhattan samples tended to be higher than those from the other boroughs; the lowest values were usually from sites farthest from densely populated business areas (Staten Island)
  • Near lower Manhattan buildings being sprayed with asbestos-containing fireproofing, measured over two days: site 1, downwind from a spray source, 45 to 80; site 2, 15 to 30; site 4, downwind from a spray source, 45; sites 3 and 5, upwind from any source, 20 (units of 10 to the minus 9 grams per cubic meter)
  • Chrysotile in other locations, in units of 10 to the minus 9 grams per cubic meter: Philadelphia 45 to 100, Ridgewood NJ 20, Port Allegany Pa 10 to 30. Amosite fibers were also found in Port Allegany air, where a factory using amosite was present
  • Earlier autopsy study (Langer et al): by optical microscopy, asbestos bodies were found in 1,449 of 3,000 New York City lungs (48.3%), and thin inorganic fibers in 1,038 of the 3,000
  • In 28 of those autopsy cases examined by electron microscopy, chrysotile was found in every specimen. In 24 of the 28, the amount exceeded what background contamination could explain
  • The authors found amosite fibers in settled dust and household air in homes that amosite factory workmen had occupied 15 years earlier
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that asbestos pollution of urban air is established, but that the size of any disease risk linked to it has not been defined. They also concluded that different kinds of asbestos exposure should not be equated, and that the asbestos industry has responsibility and opportunity for control.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors described the ambient air data as preliminary and limited, and said much more information is needed before reliable estimates of levels can be made
  • The authors said only approximations of asbestos quantity can presently be obtained from ambient air samples
  • The authors said very small fibrils could be identified only by their shape, because chemical and structural analysis was difficult
  • The authors said it is not known whether lung asbestos from non-occupational exposure is associated with disease risk
  • In 4 of the 28 electron microscopy cases, background contamination could have accounted for the findings

Related studies

• Human exposure to urban air pollution — C.E. Boström, J. Almén, et al. (1994)
• Industrial pollution and pleural cancer mortality in Spain — G. López-Abente, P. Fernández-Navarro, et al. (2012)
• Air pollution and survival in patients with malignant mesothelioma and asbestos-related lung cancer: a follow-up study of 1591 patients in South Korea — D.A. Huh, Y.H. Choi, et al. (2024)
• Cancer incidence in Priolo, Sicily: a spatial approach for estimation of industrial air pollution impact — L. Fazzo, M. Carere, et al. (2016)
• Asbestos Air Pollution: Description of a Mesothelioma Cluster Due to Residential Exposure from an Asbestos Cement Factory — L. Vimercati, D. Cavone, et al. (2020)
• Carcinogenic industrial air pollution and postmenopausal breast cancer risk in the National Institutes of Health AARP Diet and Health Study — J.M. Madrigal, C.N. Pruitt, et al. (2024)

Browse more research in Archives of Environmental Health, or return to medical research.