Asbestos in place in Metropolitan New York

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos in place in Metropolitan New York, by L.B. Molloy (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1991).

The study

• Author: L.B. Molloy
• Journal: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
• Published: 1991;643:614-21
• Cited by: 2 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This was a descriptive report, not a formal study, by an author from the Molloy Corporation, a New York City asbestos investigation firm. The author described and photographed occupied city buildings the firm had examined during routine inspections before renovations, calling them typical of places where the public and workers may be exposed to damaged, crumbling asbestos. It did not say how many buildings were inspected or how building-material samples were analysed, and measured no health effects. Examples included 70% chrysotile steam-pipe insulation in a tenant bicycle room and 27% chrysotile insulation floating on laundry wash water. A Bronx clothing store had pipe insulation with 20% crocidolite. Damaged spray-on chrysotile fireproofing was described in a grocery store and a theater, and damaged chrysotile fireproofing in a restaurant kitchen and a fan room. In one building, routine air tests by light microscopy, made every night after midnight, never exceeded 0.01 fibers per cc. Aggressive testing by electron microscopy in one office there showed 19.8 particles per cc. The author concluded that New York City needed legislation to protect the public from asbestos exposure.

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: Descriptive report with photographs of buildings inspected during routine asbestos investigations by the author's firm; no formal study methods described
• Who was studied: Occupied residential, commercial and public buildings in New York City (number not stated), including apartment buildings, stores, an auditorium, a theater, a restaurant, a museum, offices and boiler rooms
• Exposure: Damaged or deteriorating asbestos-containing pipe lagging, boiler jacket insulation and fireproofing (some of it spray-on) containing chrysotile, amosite and/or crocidolite, sometimes mixed with vermiculite, cellulose, glass or clay
• Main results:
  • Steam pipe lagging in a tenant bicycle and recreation room of a Manhattan residential building contained 70% chrysotile, with shredded asbestos on the floor
  • In a laundry room of a residential rental building, pieces of insulation containing 27% chrysotile were found floating on wash water
  • In a Bronx clothing store, damaged hot water pipe insulation containing 65% clay, 20% crocidolite and 5% chrysotile littered the clothing stocks
  • In a Bronx grocery store basement, damaged spray-on fireproofing of 40% chrysotile and 60% glass covered the stock
  • A public theater in midtown Manhattan had spray-on fireproofing of 20% chrysotile and 20% vermiculite that was peeling from the ceiling
  • A restaurant kitchen had delaminating ceiling fireproofing of 40% glass and 20% chrysotile above a refrigerator
  • In an office building fan room, material fell from ceiling fireproofing made of 20% chrysotile and 20% vermiculite
  • In a large building near Central Park, routine air tests made every night after midnight and read by light microscopy never exceeded 0.01 fibers per cc, but aggressive air testing in one office by electron microscopy showed 19.8 particles per cc
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that everyone is at risk of careless and needless asbestos exposure and that New York City needed legislation to protect the public from asbestos exposure

Related studies

• Radiological abnormalities and asbestos exposure among custodians of the New York City Board of Education — S.M. Levin, I.J. Selikoff (1991)
• Asbestos-containing materials in New York City buildings — P. Lundy, M. Barer (1992)
• The Third Wave of Asbestos Disease: Exposure to Asbestos in Place--Public Health Control. Conference. New York, New York, June 7-9, 1990 — (1991)
• Mesothelioma among employees with likely contact with in-place asbestos-containing building materials — H.A. Anderson, L.P. Hanrahan, et al. (1991)
• Asbestos in place: a building management perspective — H.G. Irwig, L.C. Oliver, et al. (1991)
• Asbestos in New York City public school buildings--public policy: is there a scientific basis? — R. Wilson, A.M. Langer, et al. (1994)

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