Asbestos hazard evaluation in South Korean textile production

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos hazard evaluation in South Korean textile production, by E. Johanning, M. Goldberg, R. Kim (International Journal of Health Services, 1994).

The study

• Authors: E. Johanning, M. Goldberg, R. Kim
• Journal: International Journal of Health Services
• Published: 1994;24(1):131-44
• Cited by: 5 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

The manufacture and use of asbestos-containing products has become the object of restrictive environmental and occupational health regulation in the United States and many European countries. World production, however, has not declined, but rather shifted to developing countries. Our knowledge of the working conditions in these countries is limited. This article describes an investigation conducted in 1991 into the conditions and work practices in asbestos textile manufacturing in South Korea. The findings are based on site visits to several asbestos textile manufacturing facilities, meetings with industrial safety experts, and labor and industry representatives. The authors describe the current status of exposure control technology and industrial hygiene practices, and the results of personal asbestos dust monitoring at five representative textile production workstations. In general, manufacturers and regulatory agencies have not taken the precautions necessary to adequately protect employee health and meet international standards. Worker exposure to asbestos dust well above U.S. and German standards is commonplace in South Korea. International cooperation of health and safety experts with experience in asbestos-related problems should be promoted to improve the level of industrial safety in developing countries.

In plain English

This 1991 field investigation examined working conditions in asbestos textile manufacturing in South Korea. The authors visited a closed plant (facility A) and two operating plants (facilities B and C). At facility B they were refused entry to the production area and relied on interviews and observation. At facility C, they sampled the air breathed by five workers in five production sections, each for about two hours. Fiber levels ranged from 0.41 fibers per cubic centimeter (f/cc) for opening to 2.79 f/cc for spinning. Electron microscopy identified the fibers as chrysotile asbestos. All five samples exceeded German standards and the U.S. OSHA limit of 0.2 f/cc, and two (spinning and twisting) exceeded the South Korean standard of 2 f/cc. Only one worker per section was sampled, and workers could not be observed during sampling. The company's own sampling showed almost all results below the Korean standard, but the authors found its pump was not properly calibrated. They also described machines that were only partly enclosed and released fibers, and respirators used without a protection program or training. The authors concluded that exposure well above U.S. and German standards seemed commonplace in South Korea.

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: Field investigation (site visits and interviews) with short-term personal air monitoring at one plant
• Who was studied: Three asbestos textile facilities in the Pusan area of South Korea in 1991: a closed plant (A) and two active plants (B and C). Personal air samples were taken from five workers in five production sections at facility C in June 1991.
• Exposure: Airborne chrysotile asbestos fibers in asbestos textile production (opening, carding, spinning, twisting, weaving), sampled for about two hours per worker
• Main results:
  • In the authors' samples at facility C, fiber concentrations ranged from 0.41 f/cc for opening to 2.79 f/cc for spinning.
  • All five samples at facility C exceeded the German standards and the U.S. OSHA permissible exposure limit of 0.2 f/cc. Two (spinning and twisting) exceeded the South Korean standard of 2 f/cc.
  • Facility C's own monitoring showed almost all samples below the Korean standard. However, the authors learned that the sampling pump had not been properly calibrated, and that the 90-liter sample volume was less than the NIOSH method requires.
  • At facility C, carding and weaving machines were enclosed, but twisting and spinning machines were only partially enclosed and released fibers into the workroom air.
  • At facility C, workers wore respirators, but there was no respiratory protection program and workers were not trained in mask use and care.
  • At facility B, observed from outside the production area, industrial hygiene conditions appeared extremely poor.
  • Facility C's management reported no knowledge of any asbestosis, lung cancer or mesothelioma among current or former employees, and no system was in place to follow up health effects.
  • The authors stated that their results confirmed those of an earlier Seoul National University survey of South Korean asbestos textile facilities.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that worker exposure to asbestos dust well above U.S. and German standards seemed to be commonplace in South Korea.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Workers could not be observed during sampling, so their activities while sampled are unknown.
  • Only one worker from each production unit was monitored.
  • Access to the production area was denied at facility B, so information on that plant was less complete and less reliable than for facility C.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Asbestos textiles, Asbestosis.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Industrial Hygiene.

Related studies

• Monitoring and Simulating Environmental Asbestos Dispersion from a Textile Factory — D. Kang, Y. Hwang, et al. (2018)
• Participatory mapping of occupational hazards and disease among asbestos-exposed workers from a foundry and insulation complex in Canada — M.M. Keith, J.T. Brophy (2004)
• Relationship of mortality to measures of environmental asbestos pollution in an asbestos textile factory — J. Peto, R. Doll, et al. (1985)
• Occupational cancer of the urinary bladder in dyestuffs operatives and of the lung in asbestos textile workers and iron-ore miners — G.M. Bonser, J.S. Faulds, et al. (1955)
• Updated mortality study of a cohort of asbestos textile workers — E. Pira, C. Romano, et al. (2016)
• Unfinished business: the asbestos textiles mystery — J.C. McDonald (1998)

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