Evaluation of ambient asbestos concentrations in buildings following the Loma Prieta earthquake

Our plain-English summary of Evaluation of ambient asbestos concentrations in buildings following the Loma Prieta earthquake, by D.R. van Orden, R.J. Lee, K.M. Bishop, et al (Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, 1995).

The study

• Authors: D.R. van Orden, R.J. Lee, K.M. Bishop, D. Kahane, R. Morse
• Journal: Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology
• Published: 1995;21(1):117-22
• Cited by: 5 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

On October 17, 1989, an earthquake struck central, coastal California including San Francisco and the Bay Area, damaging many buildings. Because of concern over the possible exposure to asbestos in the damaged buildings, building owners/managers hired several Bay Area industrial hygiene firms to collect air samples in suspect buildings. RJ Lee Group analyzed a total of 419 air samples from 55 buildings (25 school, 3 university, 20 commercial, 5 public, and 2 residential buildings) using transmission electron microscopy and has compiled the results. The data from each building were averaged and grouped accordingly into three classifications: indoor buildings, buildings with asbestos abatement in progress at the time of the earthquake, and buildings where sampling was performed to monitor clean-up of debris. Several buildings were sampled on more than 1 day. The results indicate that asbestos levels differed little from outdoor levels, even immediately after the earthquake. Exceptions to this were samples collected in the vicinity of debris clean-up and in buildings undergoing abatement which were higher than the indoor or outdoor samples. However, these samples generally had concentrations below the AHERA clearance levels and all were well below the OSHA action limit.

In plain English

This article looked at asbestos in the air of California buildings after the Loma Prieta earthquake. The authors reported on air samples collected in 55 buildings across the San Francisco Bay area, from Sacramento south to Monterey. These included school, university, commercial, public and residential buildings. The samples were measured with transmission electron microscopy, and for each sample the total asbestos structures per milliliter of air were calculated. Sample volumes ranged from 83 to 1510 liters for indoor samples and from 83 to 1408 liters for personal samples. The buildings were sorted into three groups. One group had active asbestos abatement projects (eight buildings: seven commercial and one public). A second group was sampled to monitor clean-up of earthquake debris. All other buildings were called "indoor." The authors noted that the industrial hygiene firm usually did not provide specific information on sampling times and rates. The results, tables and conclusions could not be read in the copy available for this summary, so the asbestos levels measured and the authors' conclusions are not reported here.

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: Survey of air samples collected in buildings after an earthquake and analyzed by transmission electron microscopy
• Who was studied: 55 buildings (school, university, commercial, public and residential) across the San Francisco Bay area, from Sacramento south to Monterey, sampled after the Loma Prieta earthquake. The per-type building counts in the scanned text are garbled.
• Exposure: Airborne asbestos, calculated as total asbestos structures per milliliter of air for each sample. Buildings were grouped as active asbestos abatement, debris clean-up monitoring, or all other buildings ("indoor"). The abatement group was eight buildings: seven commercial and one public. Sample volumes were 83 to 1510 liters for indoor samples and 83 to 1408 liters for personal samples.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The industrial hygiene firm usually did not provide specific information on sampling times and sampling rates.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Industrial Hygiene, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Abatement, AHERA, OSHA.

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