Asbestos in organochlorine insecticide powder sprinkled between pages of antiquarian books in a library in Japan

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos in organochlorine insecticide powder sprinkled between pages of antiquarian books in a library in Japan, by Y. Sakakibara, K. Sakai, N. Hisanaga, et al (Industrial Health, 2024).

The study

• Authors: Y. Sakakibara, K. Sakai, N. Hisanaga, N. Toyama, H. Takase, I. Saito, T. Kawai, T. Suzuki, A. Miyake, H. Nakano, E. Shibata, M. Kamijima
• Journal: Industrial Health
• Published: 2024;62(4):271-280
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

Librarians at a university had planned to check the collection prior to the library renovations that began in 2015. They had previous knowledge of the presence of a light greyish-white powder with an unpleasant odour (hereinafter referred to as 'powder') sprinkled between the pages of antiquarian books in the library archive. The purpose of this study was to identify this powder with the help of experts from both inside and outside the university. The powder was qualitatively analysed using gas chromatography with mass spectrometry after hexane extraction. The powder was examined under a polarised light microscope and a field-emission scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer. Benzene hexachloride (BHC) was detected in the powder. Talc was the most abundant particle in the powder. The powder also contained 0.52 wt% asbestos, which belonged to the tremolite-actinolite series. No other types of asbestos were detected. The powder was presumed to be a bulking agent for BHC, and its major constituent was talc. This is the first report on asbestos-containing insecticides.

In plain English

This field report examined a powder sprinkled between pages of about 7,800 antiquarian books in a Japanese university library. The authors surveyed the site, interviewed current and retired librarians, and analysed powder pooled from about 30 books. A retired librarian had been told the powder was the insecticide DDT, but testing found no DDT. It instead detected benzene hexachloride (BHC), which the authors identified as the insecticide in the powder. Talc was the most common material counted under the electron microscope, at 315 of 839 analysed fibres and particles (37.5%). Asbestos of the tremolite–actinolite series was found, and no other asbestos types were detected. By light-microscope point counting, the tremolite asbestos content was 0.52 wt% (95% confidence interval 0.34 wt% to 0.84 wt%). The authors noted that their electron-microscope counts likely overstated the share of fibres because they chose fields containing multiple fibres. The authors concluded that the asbestos may have been an impurity in the insecticide's bulking agent.

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 report: site survey, interviews with librarians, and laboratory analysis of a powder sample (gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, polarized light microscopy with point counting, and scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray analysis)
• Who was studied: Powder pooled from approximately 30 books (several pages per book) held in the stacks of a university library in Japan. The books were published in Japan before the 1860s. Five incumbent librarians and one retired librarian were interviewed, and the site survey ran from June to December 2016.
• Exposure: A light greyish-white powder sprinkled between book pages. It contained the organochlorine insecticide benzene hexachloride (BHC), talc and other mineral particles, and tremolite–actinolite asbestos. Library users brushed the powder off when reading the books.
• Main results:
  • The site survey counted approximately 7,800 books sprinkled with the powder.
  • A retired librarian said they had been told the powder was the organochlorine insecticide DDT.
  • Chemical analysis of the powder found no DDT or its breakdown compounds. It detected benzene hexachloride (BHC).
  • The authors identified BHC, not DDT, as the insecticide in the powder.
  • Under the electron microscope, talc made up 315 of the 839 fibres and particles analysed (37.5%), the most of any type.
  • Of the 216 fibres analysed by electron microscope, 184 were tremolite–actinolite asbestos, 7 talc, 6 magnesium aluminium silicate and 19 other types.
  • No asbestos types other than tremolite–actinolite were detected.
  • By polarized light microscopy point counting, asbestos was found in 20 of 3,562 counts. The tremolite asbestos content of the powder was 0.52 wt% (95% confidence interval 0.34 wt% to 0.84 wt%).
  • Most of the tremolite–actinolite fibres were non-asbestiform. The authors estimated that the non-asbestiform content was higher than the asbestiform content.
  • According to the librarians, the powdered books averaged 3 to 5 users per year.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the asbestos may have been an impurity in the bulking agent of the insecticide.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The share of fibres in the electron-microscope counts is likely higher than in the powder overall, because the authors selected fields containing multiple fibres.
  • No standard reference sample for actinolite was available.
  • The mineral making up the magnesium aluminium silicate particles could not be identified.
  • How the books were stored before the library received them in 1970 is unknown.
  • The authors could not rule out that DDT was also used in the library.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Talc and vermiculite.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Talc, Tremolite-Actinolite Series.

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