Asbestos: trouble in the air from Maryland rock quarry

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos: trouble in the air from Maryland rock quarry, by L.J. Carter (Science, 1977).

The study

• Author: L.J. Carter
• Journal: Science
• Published: 1977;197(4300):237-40
• Cited by: 4 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This is a news article in Science, not a research study. The author reported on concern in Montgomery County, Maryland, over crushed serpentine rock from a quarry near Rockville. The rock contained asbestos and had been used, often unbound and dusty, on roads, school playgrounds, park areas, driveways and parking lots. The article described a separate report by Rohl, Langer and Selikoff in Science. That team took five air samples in residential and school areas, 10 to 100 meters from stone-surfaced roads. The average concentration of chrysotile asbestos fibers was about 1000 times the average in an earlier study of 49 American cities. The article noted those researchers had not turned these measurements into a health risk estimate. It noted there was no epidemiological evidence yet that fibers from the quarry's stone had caused mesothelioma or lung cancer, but that, given cancer's long latency, this was no reason for complacency. It also covered EPA advice that a potentially serious public health hazard existed, a county dust-suppression program costing up to $7 million, and the quarry company's objections.

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: News article (journalistic report) describing a separately published research report and the public and regulatory response; not original research
• Who was studied: Residents of Montgomery County, Maryland, near a serpentine rock quarry near Rockville operated by the Rockville Crushed Stone Company; air samples from residential and school areas in the Rockville vicinity (1976 to 1977)
• Exposure: Crushed serpentine stone containing chrysotile asbestos fibers, used often in a dusty, unbound form to surface roads, school playgrounds, park recreation areas, driveways and parking lots
• Main results:
  • In the Rohl, Langer and Selikoff report (not this article's own work), five air samples were taken 10 to 100 meters from roads surfaced with quarry stone. The average chrysotile fiber concentration was approximately 1000 times greater than the average found in an earlier investigation of 49 American cities.
  • The article stated there was to date no epidemiological evidence that fibers from the Rockville quarry's stone had caused mesothelioma or lung cancer. It added that, given the long latency period for cancer, this could not be considered a reason for complacency.
  • EPA told county officials that partial results of its own air monitoring had confirmed high concentrations of airborne asbestos along some roadways in the Rockville area.
  • The Environmental Defense Fund cited findings by the Mining Enforcement and Safety Administration of high fiber counts (not necessarily asbestos) at 16 of the 19 quarries investigated so far in North Carolina and South Carolina.
  • Montgomery County committed to a dust-suppression program involving resurfacing of roads, playgrounds and recreation areas at a cost of up to $7 million.
  • The article reported that the quarry was in compliance with all existing local, state and federal antipollution standards.
• The authors' conclusion: The author wrote that the Rockville quarry was likely to become a reference point for environmental policy-makers in their effort to identify and control sources of possible carcinogenic substances.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The article reported that Selikoff and colleagues acknowledged that turning air sampling data into a health risk assessment involves unknowns, such as the effect of fiber particle size and of different levels and durations of exposure.

Related studies

• Trouble in Anatolia — N.R. Anthonisen (2004)
• Asbestos distribution in the Central Serpentine District of Maryland-Pennsylvania — J.H. Puffer, M. Germine, et al. (1980)
• Asbestos on Maryland's roads — A.M. Langer, A.N. Rohl, et al. (1978)
• Mortality patterns among hard rock gold miners exposed to an asbestiform mineral — J.D. Gillam, J.M. Dement, et al. (1976)
• Environmental asbestos pollution related to use of quarried serpentine rock — A.N. Rohl, A.M. Langer, et al. (1977)
• Mechanism of refractory ceramic fiber- and rock wool-induced cytotoxicity in alveolar macrophages — K.A. Kim, W.K. Lee, et al. (2001)

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